General Manager’s Message – by Louis Porter
As members might imagine, preparing for outages and for the safe restoration of power after a storm is among the most important things we do here at WEC. We are working to minimize those outages and respond quickly to safely restore power. For example, we are implementing a new metering system which will help us get more information more quickly, allowing the more efficient deployment of crews. In recent years, we have begun asking for help from more outside crews under the utilities’ mutual aid program and hired more contract crews to restore electricity as quickly as possible. We have also increased our communication with members, both through our outage map, which now shows restoration time estimates when possible, and through our website, as well as using email, Smarthub and phone calls in some cases to reach out to members. All of this will not eliminate outages, but hopefully will reduce their severity over time.
One note of caution – over the last three years we have seen major storms slam each of the three providers that serve large rural areas – WEC, Green Mountain Power and Vermont Electric Cooperative. Each of those utilities have experienced storms that have caused outages of five days or more, even while the other two utilities were far less impacted by that particular event. A utility serving a sparsely settled, rugged territory like ours, particularly in a time in which we are seeing rapid and dramatic increases in storm damage, is going to experience outages, including some of significant duration.
Our members not only pay the electric bills that keep power reaching WEC’s communities, they are also the owners of the cooperative. That means that when we bring in more revenue than is needed for operations, we return that money as capital credits to those members over time. It also means that members are our partners during outages, as well as during normal times. So, I would ask that all WEC members help in the following ways.
Help us prepare. We, along with the other Vermont utilities, meet together with state officials to prepare for major storms. We would also ask that you prepare as well, by having supplies on hand, particularly in the winter, to be ready for outages. That includes fuel for generators and vehicles, an alternative heating system that does not rely on electricity, in addition to basic needs like food and water.
Most importantly, help your neighbors, family members and friends who might need it before and after storm events, and if you don’t have a backup generator, but do have a medical condition that might place you in jeopardy during an outage (or if you no longer have such a condition) please update WEC about that need. We must restore power from our substations out to the ends of the line in order to get power to people’s houses, but if we know you have such a need we can help coordinate with emergency responders for other kinds of aid.
Help us restore power safely. Although our system can communicate with our meters, it is still important to report outages to WEC. We rely on timely, accurate reports to respond to outages efficiently. We may not know you are out of power if you don’t call or otherwise report in, but if you report inaccurately that can also hamper our response. Finally, please give all WEC personnel and contract crews the space they need to do their work safely. These folks leave their own homes and families – often while they are out of power themselves – to work long hours, in difficult circumstances and horrendous weather to help their communities and they deserve your respect and patience.
Help us recover. The work of repairing our system goes on long after the last house has had its electricity restored. Broken poles are propped up so that people can regain service and must be replaced, trees must be cleared out of rights of way and lines spliced temporarily must be replaced. Our crews, dispatchers and member service representatives keep working long after a storm has been consigned to memory for the rest of us.
Thank you for being a WEC member and for the assistance you provide in keeping local, renewable power flowing to our communities.
Note: A shorter version of this message was originally published in the East Montpelier Signpost. Reprinted here with permission. Read the Signpost at emsignpost.com