Electric co-ops are scrambling to restore power this week after the eastern USA was hit by Winter Storm Fern, leaving at least 20 people dead and millions asked to stay at home.
With heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures continuing, travel has been severely disrupted and more than 80,000 people left without power.
NRECA, the trade body for the rural electric co-op sector, says its member organisations have been working to restore power to over 300,000 consumer-members after the massive storm covered more than half of the country.
The key problem for electric co-ops is the accumulation of heavy ice which can snap power lines and poles, or topples trees into wires, causing outages. NRECA says principle 6 – co-operation among co-ops – has come into play with crews from co-ops in less affected areas travelling to help those hardest hit.
Outages have been particularly high in the southern states of Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina and Georgia, but co-op members have been affected in more than 20 states.
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In Mississippi, more than 160,000 co-op members lost power, and 12 electric co-ops requested assistance from in-state and out-of-state co-op crews.
“One of the most powerful tools electric co-ops have in dealing with natural disasters is the power of co-operation with other co-operatives,” Michael Callahan, CEO of the Mississippi statewide association, told a report from NRECA. “Mutual aid agreements within the co-operative network are key to getting power back on to our members quickly and safely.”
Meanwhile, Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association has reported than 85,560 members are without power, with co-op crews out assessing damage and working to restore service.
“We know how difficult it is to be without power, especially in cold winter conditions,” said vice-president of communications Trent Scott. “Co-op lineworkers are in the field assessing damage and making repairs where conditions allow. They’re following a proven restoration plan that puts safety first and helps us bring power back to the greatest number of members as efficiently as possible.”
Kentucky Electric Cooperatives reported more than 41,000 co-op members without power as of late morning Monday, down from more than 60,000 outages on Sunday night. Final restorations were expected to take more than a week.
Licking Valley Rural Electric Cooperative posted on Facebook: “One thing about co-operatives, we are always ready to help one another in time of need. Now that our outages have been restored, we are sending a four man crew and three trucks to assist a sister co-operative at Tri-County Electric Membership Corporation. They were hit really hard and still have 14,800 members without power. Help us in wishing them safe travels while working down south.”
South Kentucky RECC had the most outages, NRECA reported, with more than 16,000 of its nearly 71,000 members without power on Monday, down from about 21,000 the night before.
“Freezing rain/ice accumulation does not stop causing damage when the precipitation stops,” said Joe Arnold, vice president of strategic communications at KEC. “The weight on power lines and trees continues, so outages can still be triggered days after the weather event. Factor in wind gusts, and the cumulative effect is a slow-motion disaster.”
Similar stories of electric co-ops using mutual aid to deal with outages are repeated across affected states.
