FAQ

Approx­i­mate­ly 1,500 of the 3,500 miles of line YEC has are under­ground. The major­i­ty of new lines we install annu­al­ly are under­ground, and we see this trend con­tin­u­ing as this has become the norm for new res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial devel­op­ments. While we do replace some over­head lines with under­ground ser­vice through­out the year, it would be too much of a finan­cial impact on the mem­ber­ship to replace our exist­ing 2,000 miles of line under­ground. It is esti­mat­ed to cost hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars and would take more than 10 years to com­plete. The impact on the rates we charge you, our mem­bers, would be tremen­dous. YEC’s line­men are exten­sive­ly cross-trained in all areas of oper­a­tion. It would not have a neg­a­tive impact on them.

The min­i­mum require­ment for ceil­ing insu­la­tion is R‑30, but the rec­om­men­da­tion is R‑38–49. Prop­er insu­la­tion can cut ener­gy costs by as much as half! Also, con­sid­er insu­lat­ing out­side walls, attics, spaces between floors, around heat­ing ducts and pipes that are exposed to the ele­ments. Insu­late nooks and cran­nies such as wall out­lets, gaps in sid­ing and around the foun­da­tion, and holes around pipes, ducts, and exhaust fans.

Elec­tric coop­er­a­tives were first formed in the 1930s when it became evi­dent that estab­lished pow­er com­pa­nies were not ready to sup­ply pow­er to peo­ple liv­ing in rur­al Amer­i­ca. The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment estab­lished the Rur­al Elec­tri­fi­ca­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (REA) to lend mon­ey for the con­struc­tion of pow­er lines out­side pop­u­la­tion cen­ters. Farm­ers and oth­er rur­al res­i­dents formed coop­er­a­tives to bor­row mon­ey from the REA and con­struct the need­ed lines.

YEC was found­ed in 1941 by a group of farm­ers and busi­ness­men who real­ized that the only way to bring elec­tric pow­er to rur­al York Coun­ty was to do it them­selves. In March of 1941, 553 strong, these cit­i­zens began an endeav­or that would change rur­al liv­ing in this area for­ev­er.

YEC’s capac­i­ty to sup­ply depend­able and afford­able elec­tric pow­er also opened our rur­al areas to com­merce and indus­try. New and diver­si­fied busi­ness­es came to the coun­try­side, pro­vid­ing jobs, prod­ucts, and ser­vices.

Since 1941, YEC has been an active com­mu­ni­ty part­ner and a dynam­ic force in the area’s eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment. We con­tin­ue to serve the homes, farms, and small busi­ness­es in our rur­al areas, but we now also serve a grow­ing num­ber of res­i­den­tial, com­mer­cial, and large indus­tri­al accounts in York Coun­ty’s expand­ing pop­u­la­tion cen­ters.

York Elec­tric’s ser­vice ter­ri­to­ry con­tin­ues to be one of the fastest-grow­ing areas in the Unit­ed States.

Momen­tary out­ages occur when a dis­tur­bance on the line is detect­ed. These dis­tur­bances could be caused by a light­ning strike, a squir­rel or tree branch con­tact­ing the line, or a downed line or out­age in a near­by area, etc. If a fault or short cir­cuit occurs on a pow­er line, a device called a reclos­er opens to stop it and then quick­ly clos­es. This device allows pow­er to con­tin­ue flow­ing through the line with only a brief inter­rup­tion of ser­vice rather than caus­ing an extend­ed pow­er out­age. Although the process is quick and usu­al­ly tem­po­rary, it may cause your lights to blink. If the short cir­cuit con­tin­ues, the reclos­er will oper­ate or ‘trip’ three times before even­tu­al­ly stop­ping the flow of elec­tric­i­ty and caus­ing a pow­er out­age. This process pro­tects the lines from dam­age by cut­ting off pow­er to the affect­ed sec­tion of the line and iso­lat­ing the prob­lem until it can be repaired.

Caus­es of Pow­er Out­ages & Blinks
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YEC is com­mit­ted to build­ing high-speed fiber inter­net net­works as soon as South Car­oli­na elec­tric-coop­er­a­­tives receive fed­er­al fund­ing. Oth­er SC elec­tric coop­er­a­tives com­mit­ted to doing so include Mid-Car­oli­­na Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, Blue Ridge Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, San­tee Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, New­ber­ry Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, Pal­met­to Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, Tri-Coun­­ty Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, Pee Dee Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive.