Storm work

YEC under­stands many mem­bers have been affect­ed by the recent storms in our area. Dur­ing East­er week­end, approx­i­mate­ly 25% of our mem­ber­ship, across our entire ser­vice ter­ri­to­ry, expe­ri­enced an out­age. This is the largest amount of dam­age we have seen in more than 10 years. We appre­ci­at­ed your patience as we worked to make repairs, restor­ing pow­er to all accounts by the next day. As our crews work to safe­ly repair dam­ages from severe weath­er, we want our mem­bers to under­stand the work we do ahead of time to pre­pare and what it takes to get your lights back on. Vice Pres­i­dent of Ener­gy and Deliv­ery Den­ny Lynn offers insight on storm work and life on the line.

What is the biggest chal­lenge we face when we have a storm?

Lynn: We face many chal­lenges dur­ing and after a storm. Chal­lenges include stay­ing safe in storm dam­aged work­ing con­di­tions and find­ing access through the dam­age to our facil­i­ties. Above all, we want to make sure our employ­ees are pro­tect­ed and stay safe. There is also a strug­gle of bal­anc­ing our strong desire to restore ser­vice quick­ly with ensur­ing the safe­ty of our employ­ees, mak­ing sure they receive prop­er rest and nutri­tion. It is also chal­leng­ing to deter­mine how to best uti­lize our avail­able YEC resources to best serve our mem­bers, as well as acquir­ing oth­er assis­tance and resources from oth­er coop­er­a­tives and con­trac­tors.

What pre­cau­tions do we take to pre­vent storm dam­age?

Lynn: YEC is proac­tive in annu­al pre­ven­ta­tive main­te­nance on all aspects of the elec­tric dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem. From our aggres­sive right of way sched­ule, to main­te­nance and upgrades to facil­i­ties on all parts of our sys­tem, we always have storms and excel­lent ser­vice in mind. YEC stays on an annu­al main­te­nance process, con­stant­ly work­ing to make the elec­tric dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem stronger and bet­ter.

Why do some repairs take longer than oth­ers?

Lynn: Repairs that take longer are often due to the extent of the dam­ages and the prob­lems of access to lines and facil­i­ties. Our employ­ees are well trained and pro­fi­cient in per­form­ing restora­tion in dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions and chal­leng­ing con­di­tions, but these sit­u­a­tions of exten­sive dam­age and dif­fi­cult access do extend restora­tion times occa­sion­al­ly. Many peo­ple are involved when a storm hits.

Can you describe the team­work that takes place at YEC?

Lynn: Every depart­ment and every employ­ee of YEC is active­ly involved in the restora­tion process after a major storm hits. We all have a pre­de­ter­mined role that is part of the over­all storm response plan. There is a great deal of sup­port work that goes on behind the scenes, includ­ing food plan­ning and prepa­ra­tions, answer­ing calls and inquiries from mem­bers, coor­di­nat­ing the pro­cure­ment of mate­ri­als, con­tin­ued main­te­nance and repairs of equip­ment, com­mu­ni­cat­ing with mem­bers on our restora­tion efforts, lodg­ing for out of town crews offer­ing assis­tance and orga­niz­ing finan­cial resources to pay for mate­ri­als. I’m sure I haven’t list­ed each role played by our team, but you can see there are many key areas that are not read­i­ly seen on the fore­front of the over­all restora­tion effort.

Describe the haz­ards that come with storm work and YEC’s safe­ty cul­ture.

Lynn: Storm restora­tion work on an elec­tric dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem is filled with haz­ards of every imag­in­able sort. Large downed trees on pow­er lines, safe­ly han­dling and work­ing with high volt­age, work­ing high in the air on equip­ment and climb­ing high volt­age poles—all in adverse weath­er con­di­tions, among debris, while being phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly tired. The haz­ards often seem over­whelm­ing to us, which is why we work so hard every sin­gle day, all year long, to pro­vide every­thing that our employ­ees need to per­form our work safe­ly and effi­cient­ly. This includes prop­er tools, well-main­tained equip­ment, prop­er train­ing, sound com­mu­ni­ca­tion, good safe­ty process­es and pro­ce­dures, a well built and well main­tained elec­tri­cal dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem and, most of all, a strong cul­ture of good safe­ty habits, process­es, pro­ce­dures and pro­to­cols that pro­tect our employ­ees. We appre­ci­ate the con­sis­tent sup­port from our board of direc­tors to con­tin­ue this cul­ture of safe­ty and edu­ca­tion.

How do you approach storm dam­age? How do you decide what gets atten­tion first?

Lynn: Our ini­tial reac­tion and response in a storm sit­u­a­tion is to quick­ly assess exact­ly what is “out” and what areas have been affect­ed. That assess­ment is typ­i­cal­ly being done as YEC per­son­nel are report­ing to work. All elec­tric util­i­ties per­form restora­tion efforts in a sim­i­lar fash­ion. First, we work to restore main lines or feed­ers and main cir­cuits, thus restor­ing ser­vice to the most mem­bers at one time as quick­ly as pos­si­ble. Taps, or lines off the main feed­ers and cir­cuits are assessed and repaired next. Per­form­ing restora­tion efforts in this man­ner has proven, time and again, pow­er is restored faster for the entire elec­tric sys­tem and all affect­ed mem­bers.

Mend­ing the Mess

YEC line­men doc­u­ment­ed the haz­ards they encoun­tered before mend­ing the mess to get the lights back on for mem­bers as quick­ly and safe­ly as pos­si­ble.