Between the lines

Spring cleaning delivers safe, reliable power.

Spring gives us a chance to thaw out after a chilly win­ter. At our house, we take advan­tage of longer day­light hours by doing a lit­tle spring clean­ing and yard work. But the sea­son­al shift isn’t all good news. The rapid change from harsh, cold air to warmer tem­per­a­tures can trig­ger severe weath­er. To pro­tect our elec­tric lines and keep pow­er flow­ing safe­ly to your home, York Elec­tric per­forms main­te­nance on our rights of way. Think of it as spring clean­ing for pow­er lines.

Right-of-way (ROW) main­te­nance keeps tree limbs and oth­er growth away from high-volt­age pow­er lines. It’s an impor­tant part of the ser­vice we pro­vide to you, our mem­bers, for three rea­sons: safe­ty, reli­a­bil­i­ty and cost.

Our pri­ma­ry con­cern is the safe­ty of our work­ers and mem­bers. Prop­er­ly main­tained ROW helps keep our crews safe when they are restor­ing ser­vice and main­tain­ing our sys­tem. Keep­ing trees clear of pow­er lines also keeps your fam­i­ly safe. From mak­ing sure a child’s tree house is not close to pow­er lines to cre­at­ing a safe envi­ron­ment for our mem­bers that may be doing yard work, a well-main­tained ROW helps avoid tragedy.

Asplundh Tree Expert Co.
Asplundh Tree Expert Co.

Pow­er lines are a con­stant part of our land­scape; it’s easy to for­get they are around. We work hard to keep the area around our lines clear, but we need your help. Be alert this spring and sum­mer. Please don’t plant trees or tall veg­e­ta­tion under pow­er lines, and keep an eye out for pow­er lines when work­ing in your yard or on your prop­er­ty.

If severe weath­er blows through, a well-main­tained ROW leads to few­er out­ages and faster response and restora­tion times. Trees are less of a threat in well-main­tained rights of way, but when trees do fall on lines, crews are able to restore ser­vice more quick­ly than they could with poor­ly main­tained areas.

Vice Pres­i­dent of Ener­gy Deliv­ery
Den­nis Lynn, Jr.

As a not-for-prof­it coop­er­a­tive, YEC strives to keep costs afford­able for you, our mem­bers. Main­tain­ing our ROW is an impor­tant part of con­trol­ling costs. Few­er and short­er out­ages save mon­ey for every­one. When crews work in well-main­tained areas, we can reduce risks for employ­ees and equip­ment too—another way to keep costs low­er.

Safe­ty, reli­a­bil­i­ty, and cost: this is why we believe in ROW ‘spring clean­ing.’ If we com­pro­mise on one of these areas, it impacts the oth­ers. At YEC, we aren’t will­ing to com­pro­mise. Main­tain­ing our ROW is a pri­or­i­ty for your safe­ty, com­fort and pock­et­book.

Den­ny Lynn
Vice Pres­i­dent of Ener­gy Deliv­ery