Reporting Need of Tree Trimming
Vegetation management, commonly referred to as right-of-way maintenance (ROW),
is essential to providing safe and reliable electric service. Egyptian Electric Cooperative works hard to ensure that rights-of-way are regularly cleared of trees and brush to help reduce potential outages and hazards. Trees and branches growing in or near power lines can cause interruptions in service and delay service restoration. Uncontrolled brush can impede access to utility structures.
Keeping safety first
Trees and branches pose significant safety concerns when they are too close to power lines. Children climbing trees in this situation could be severely injured or even killed if they or a limb of the tree contact an energized line. Adults who chose to do their own tree trimming can also put themselves at risk. Pruning trees near power lines should be left to qualified vegetation management professionals.
Additionally, trees can fall into power lines due to strong wind, saturated ground and inclement weather. Not only can power lines be knocked down, but poles can be broken, lengthening the service restoration time and increase costs. Although all weather-related outages can not be prevented, vegetation management definitely minimizes damage, injury and outages.
Reducing the likelihood for power outages
In August 2003, approximately 40 million people lost power for roughly two days in the northeastern United States. The root cause for this massive blackout – overgrown trees that contacted high-voltage transmission lines. The importance of vegetation management can not be stressed enough. In fact, the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) has established requirements for transmission line vegetation management.
The new standards apply to transmission lines operating at 200 kilovolts and above. Transmission lines are used to carry bulk electricity from a generating plant to a substation. These standards establish formal transmission vegetation management programs that define the following:
- regular schedules for clearing
- clearances between vegetation and transmission lines
- quarterly reporting systems for transmission outages caused by vegetation
Vegetation management for distribution lines is addressed through the National Electric Safety Code (NESC). Distribution lines delivering electric energy to cooperative members are what our crews primarily deal with. Although there are no specific requirements, the NESC states, “vegetation that may damage ungrounded supply lines should be pruned or removed.”
In addition to safety concerns and outage prevention, vegetation management is necessary to reduce unexpected costs to Egyptian Electric Cooperative. By keeping rights-of-way clear, our crews are able to restore power more quickly, improve reliability and prevent expensive repairs caused by trees or neglected vegetation.
Our crews and the contractors that work for us do a great job of right-of-way vegetation management. In general, our vegetation management plan is predicated on a four-year cycle. Should you notice any trees or brush that need attention, please contact our office at 1-800-606-1505. This will help ensure our efforts to deliver safe, reliable power at the lowest possible cost are successful.
