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Outage FAQs

Power Restoration: A Primer

 

While CVEC constantly focuses on service reliability, members’ attention quickly rises when a storm creates an outage. Here is some basic information about the nature of the distribution system, outage reporting, and service restoration.

Distribution System:

CVEC has more than 4,500 miles of line fed out of 30+ substations and metering points. A good portion is overhead line that features three-phase lines (three wires that sit atop crossarms) serving as primary feeders, and single-phase lines that take off from the three-phase lines. They travel overland to reach into coves, valleys, and rural neighborhoods. CVEC also has underground distribution lines, mostly in planned communities where developers have paid to install the conductors underground or on individual accounts where some members have selected that option for the wires that run between their individual transformer and their house.

CVEC’s distribution system is designed to have a useful life of 35-years and represents an investment of more than $200 million since 1937.

It is constantly being tested, repaired, and upgraded to ensure adequate capacity and normal service reliability. At present, CVEC invests $8 to $10 million annually in upgrades to the distribution infrastructure.

The distribution lines are radial, essentially in the shape of a tree, with the trunk being the primary feeder, and then having lines that take off in different directions like the side branches of a tree. The line continues to branch off until small tap lines arrive in neighborhoods or clusters of homes.

Protective devices, fuses, and breakers are installed all along these lines and at the beginning of tap lines. These devices operate when an object gets between the line and a grounded surface (such as when a squirrel stretches from the metal transformer to the energized line or when a tree falls on a power line), which is known as a fault condition. When a protective device does operate, the line is de-energized (think of a circuit breaker in your house) and every member beyond that point is without electric service. These devices limit an outage when a fault condition occurs; otherwise, the line would trip all the way back to the substation and everyone on the circuit would be out of service.

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Outage Reporting and Communications:

What happens when a storm arrives? Trees growing outside of the ROW can fall into the power lines as a result of wind, root release, or ice/snow load, creating a fault condition and possibly greater damage: breaking poles and tearing down the conductor. When that happens, a fuse or breaker located up-line (closer to the substation) will operate and de-energize the entire line beyond that point.

At this point, CVEC begins receiving calls from members. As our service reps take calls, the information is entered into the Outage Management System (OMS), but little information is known at that time. About 80% of CVEC’s members use the Co-op’s website or the Automated Reporting System, by verifying their account or primary phone number. This process allows CVEC to handle upwards of 1,000 calls per hour and enter the outage information into the OMS. As calls come in, the OMS will analyze the data and predict the fault locations on each circuit (at least the first fault location on the circuit exiting the substation) and dispatch a crew to where they can do the most good.

During this time, Dispatchers and Member Service Reps have little information about the extent of the damage or the number of fault locations that exist between the substation (the source of power) and each member’s house. Members want to know how long until their service will be restored. Factors affecting restoration include any number of conditions:

• One tree down, which will likely require 2-3 hours to clear and re-energize the line.
• One tree down with a broken pole and downed line, which might take 4-5 hours to repair.
• Numerous trees down from a major storm in multiple substations. We have seen upwards of 2,000 trees cleared during a major weather event. In those circumstances some members will experience a one-day outage and others will experience a multi-day outage.
• Trees down near the end of the line that create outages for small clusters of homes in a neighborhood. Restoration work to restore service to half a dozen homes in each cluster may take several hours only after the primary circuits have been opened and energy is flowing.

Other factors that affect the service restoration time include steep terrain, trees still falling in the work area, and heavy snow or boggy soil that limits access with heavy equipment, requiring crews to carry in equipment and tools.

The OMS will ask members if they wish to receive a call when our system predicts that their power has been restored. If a member gets that call and power is NOT restored, there are probably additional fault locations between the substation and their location. It is best for them to report the outage again.

CVEC provides updates about restoration progress to members about significant and extended outages by way of our website, Facebook, and press releases. An outage from a single fault location will likely be cleared before we have full information from the field.

Later this year, CVEC plans to introduce a mobile application that will pro-actively notify members when we predict that you have an outage and will be able to send updates directly to a smart phone.

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Service Restoration:

While we covered single-fault outages above, major outages deserve a little more attention.

A severe storm will drop hundreds of trees, causing multiple fault locations along every circuit out of many substations. Personnel are dispatched to patrol lines and the OMS identifies the fault locations closest to the substation on the major lines.

As crews work along the primary circuits, starting near the substation, they clear trees, make repairs, and re-energize the line, hoping the electricity will flow to the end. During this event, crews often find that when they re-energize a line, the electricity doesn’t flow to the end, more likely it travels only a few hundred feet down line until it reaches another downed tree, exposing another fault location and causing another protective device to operate. On tap lines and far away from the substation, the same amount of effort likely will restore service to fewer members.

As work progresses and primary circuits are cleared, more than half of the members will likely see power restored in the first day. Crews also proceed down single-phase lines, using the same clear and re-energize process that occurred on the main circuits. While necessary, the same amount of effort restores power to only a few people.

In the final days of the outage restoration process, crews are working multiple hours near the periphery of the system to restore service to small neighborhoods or even to single family homes. The work is just as hard but progress is slower given the distance from the substation and fault locations that affect small clusters of members.

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CVEC responds to outage calls 24/7!

Member Service Reps and Dispatchers take calls during the business day and evening. When no employees are on duty or we experience high call volumes, CVEC is backed up by our business partner, the Cooperative Response Center (CRC), a communications cooperative that takes overflow calls from members and assists with payments and outage entry. CRC can answer thousands of calls during an outage and it supports the manual outage entry efforts of CVEC employees.

Of course, the speed and accuracy of the Cooperative’s automated phone system makes it the best means for entering information into the CVEC Outage Management System where that data will be analyzed and crews dispatched to make repairs.

While CVEC reps wish to be helpful, they do not have the ability to predict service restoration times for an individual service nor a portion of the service area. They are not in direct contact with linemen who are trained to focus on working safely and efficiently under dangerous conditions. A typical outage will only take a few hours to resolve, but widespread, multi-day outages caused by major weather events may affect a member for a few hours or a few days depending on a variety of factors. In that instance, CVEC will share general information received from supervisors in the field about the extent of the damage and the overall progress of restoration efforts in each substation area.

 

 

 

 

 

Corporate Headquarters:

800 Cooperative Way

Arrington, VA 22922

Payments:

Dept. 1340  |  PO Box 2153

Birmingham, AL 35287-1340

Correspondence:

P. O. Box 247

Lovingston, VA 22949