THE QUESTION: "When's the power going to be back on?" | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

   We'll tell you how you can answer it next time

    "When's the power going to be back on?" That's The Question...the most frequent question we received from readers in the aftermath of Irene, after the water came back on. The most severely impacted electrical service area locally was in Southern Beaufort County, Pamlico County, and parts of Craven County so we did some research on what was being done by Tideland EMC. The new CEO Paul Spruill, in spite of being very busy, was most helpful in explaining to us how they respond to a catastrophic event such as a hurricane. We have summarized our interview with him below while quoting him in a few places so as to better inform electric system users about the challenges of restoring power after impact.

    Mr. Spruill explained, "Hurricane Irene is a particularly useful example for discussing our response because all but an estimated 200 homes lost power. The homes fortunate enough not to suffer a loss in services represent approximately 1 percent of the 22,400 accounts in Tideland's service area which occupies portions of six counties."

    Mr. Spruill explained there are a number of very complex variables at play in such an event. As a result, it is difficult to answer the question, "When's the power going to be back on?"

    "We can't make a list and estimate when we will get to a particular neighborhood on the list to have the power restored," he said.

    We asked him to explain how it works and what prevents an accurate projection of when the power will be restored.

    "The most important objective is to determine after a major event whether the substation(s) are energized," he said.

    Each of Tideland's 15 substations serves thousands of homes with multiple circuits delivering power from each substation. If a substation is out, any electric utility would give it a high priority. A substation's power supply originates with very large transmission lines that deliver power from outside the service area.

    "In Tideland's case we are responsible for a single transmission line 'upstream' of the Mattamuskeet substation. Our power suppliers (generally Progress Energy and Dominion Power) are responsible for the transmission infrastructure serving all other substations."

    If a storm is severe enough to disrupt the power supply from any of these very large transmission lines, the targeted substation(s) will be dark until this major repair is completed. (You can usually identify this infrastructure as very high poles composed of steel or concrete that travel long distances)

    "Unfortunately, Hurricane Irene spawned a Belhaven-Ponzer tornado on Friday night and took out the single large transmission line that we maintain on behalf of the majority of Hyde County mainland," Spruill said.

    If Tideland has power at the substations, they begin to work on individual three phase distribution circuits that distribute power to large geographic areas. For example, the "Blounts Creek circuit" extends many miles from a substation in Edward near the intersection of Tunstall Swamp and Durham Creek Road to the East entrance of Cypress Landing where the circuit ends. The "Blounts Creek circuit" is one of four circuits that originate at the Edward substation on the south side in Beaufort County.
The hurricane force winds that went on for 18 hours that plagued the Beaufort County region caused many downed power lines.     photo by Stan Deatherage
    Three phase circuits primarily distribute power to 'tap lines' serving individual neighborhoods. There may be dozens of single-phase and three-phase 'tap-lines' extending away from a single three-phase circuit.

    Three phase circuits may, however, provide service to individual homes located very near the route of any of these long circuits. Thus, homes in close proximity to the three phase circuits will likely get power restored sooner than those on the tap lines extending away from the three-phase circuit.

    Finally, there are individual service lines that provide power to individual properties or structures. These service lines separately serve one home after another and extend away from the 'tap lines' serving individual neighborhoods. If an unfortunate homeowner has suffered damage to his or her individual service line, they are likely to be lowest in priority.

    When Tideland gets a call that power is out at a particular address they first determine where the break is located. After a storm they typically work from the substation outward starting with circuits, then 'tap lines' from each circuit, then individual service lines for individual homes. In an isolated event (a small thunderstorm), they will restore power in a small and localized area resulting in a more rapid restoration of service.

    After a major event such as Irene another road block to restoring power is the need to clear the power line easements of all fallen trees that prohibit the access of line crews and their equipment to power lines. Generally, tree crews work ahead of line crews to clear tree obstructions from power line easements and on top of power line infrastructure before line crews make repairs.

    The typical problem is a power line ('conductor'), pole, cross-arm, or transformer that has been broken or disabled by falling trees and limbs. The line crews isolate and ground that line section in order to work safely. There are isolation points (switches, fuses, and reclosures) that allow the power to be disconnected from a given location. Then, in a best case scenario, the line crew splices the existing broken 'conductors' (power lines) with a compression sleeve that slides over the conductor and is then compressed. Finally, the lines are re-sagged with proper tension before the crew energizes the repaired section. The crew then moves to the next broken point away from the substation.

    Sometimes it is not that simple. The poles, the cross-arms on top of the poles, the transformers, or various other components have been damaged and must be repaired or replaced. Often, this work occurs in back-country power line easements surrounded by trees or low-lying areas.

    It is a systematic process of working from the substations, down the three phase distribution circuits, isolating the damaged line sections so as to get power distributed again, then reenergizing 'tap lines' and ultimately individual service lines to individual meters.

    There is no way to accurately predict how long this process will take after a storm such as Hurricane Irene.

    "Tideland brought in substantial contract resources before the storm's arrival in anticipation of the outages likely to occur proportionate to the glancing blow that was forecasted," said Spruill. "On day 1 of recovery, which for us began early Sunday morning, we quickly realized we had suffered consequences far worse than anticipated and we nearly quadrupled our normal power line workforce."

    We asked Mr. Spruill if Tideland prioritizes which circuits they work on first or second.

    He stated, "Yes. We give high priority to those circuits that serve essential public infrastructure and those priorities may change during our response based upon requests from the jurisdictions we serve. Examples include a request from Beaufort County to give high priority to the circuit serving the water treatment plant near Aurora and a request from the Town of Chocowinity to give high priority to an estimated 240 Cypress Landing homes with electric sewer pumps and a sewer force main. The Town indicated that the individual pumps had each reached their capacity for holding wastewater and were at risk for sewer spills."

    "We then attempt to balance which circuits can be repaired very quickly with the circuits that serve the most residences. Our objective is to get as many users reenergized as quickly as possible in order to make the most significant impact early in our response," Spruill said.

    When asked if it made any difference if an individual customer or neighborhood needed power for an exceptional purpose, such as operating medical equipment like oxygen or respirators. He responded, "We find it very difficult to give individual homes priority because the circuit may be disabled many miles from their location. We cannot send a crew to a given house and get the power back on immediately and we would be wrong to indicate that we could. Our distribution infrastructure needs attention first. As a result, it is important that individuals with such special needs have auxiliary power supplies, like batteries for essential equipment or generators. In some cases, individuals with special needs may simply need to evacuate given the potential for a power outage."

    And speaking of generators Tideland and other utility companies routinely emphasize the importance of homeowners not hooking generators into their home power system unless a switch is installed by a licensed electrician to keep the generator from "backfeeding" the circuit and electrocuting the linemen who may be working on the circuit, tap, or downed individual service line. Utility companies generally suggest that you always plug your appliances or devices directly into the generator and never plug your generator into your home electrical system unless it has been properly wired by a licensed electrician.

    We also learned that different power suppliers may serve a specific area. For example both Tideland and Progress Energy serve Cypress Landing. To make matters more complicated, homes in very close proximity to each other may be served on different 'tap lines'. As a result, some homes in a subdivision may have power while others do not. In some cases one block on a street may have power while another block on the same street or houses across the street do not. In a homeowner's worst case scenario, his or her individual service may be damaged meaning all of the neighbors have power, but he or she is in the dark.

    Because of some complaints we had received we did check to see if we could determine if "favorites" were being played despite what Mr. Spruill claimed in our telephone interview.

    We talked to several crew members and were satisfied that they actually do follow the systematic approach Mr. Spruill described. "We don't know who lives where," one of the crewmen said. "We work the circuits from one break to the next." We were told that "headquarters" could assign more crews to one area than to another and that might speed up getting power on that circuit, but the individual crews usually just move down the line from one problem to the next.

    Mr. Spruill did say they gave priority recently to getting power restored to the circuit that serves Cypress Landing not only for reasons associated with the Town of Chocowinity's public sewer infrastructure, but also because the three-phase circuit that directly powers Cypress Landing is a necessary step before restoring service to many separate 'tap lines' leading to the Pamlico River from Old Blounts Creek Road.

    Progress Energy similarly prioritized the public water infrastructure at the Beaufort County water treatment plant located near Southside High School.

    And with reference to the Southside water system being down for several days, we asked Mr. Spruill, the former county manager responsible for the water utility, to explain why the water system did not have back-up power. "It is very rare that we would have a power outage for a long enough period of time such that the supply of water in a filled water tank would drop so severely as to exhaust the water supply for so many customers. If the power stays out long enough to cause this circumstance, the County would generally have sufficient notice to bring in temporary mobile generators in order to refill the tanks. This was a very unusual event that was both very long and very destructive. The water lines destroyed along with each individual home had an unusual amount of time to drain the water system of its supply. The water utility may not experience this event again for many, many years. As a result, it is really not cost effective to spend the money for permanent back-up generators when the next circumstance may not arise until the end of the generator's useful life. "

    We did learn that the culprit in the loss of the Southside water system after Irene was some broken water mains in the Aurora area which drained the water supply from the system after the power went off. But this very seldom happens. The County did bring in auxiliary generators but we were told that the delay in getting the generators on line was caused by the delay in getting the generators delivered to Beaufort County and that is something state emergency management officials would be looking at in their "after the event assessment."

    After all of our research (and doing without power for four days) we were impressed with what we learned, not only about the way the system works but we were extremely impressed with the people doing the work, beginning with the CEO who made extraordinary efforts to communicate with the public about what was going on, to the crews wearing the hardhats. One told us he had worked 72 hours in four days. When asked how he would compare this event to others he had worked in his attitude was "beats working in 10 degree ice storms..." Anybody that can find something good about last week has got to have a good attitude. As we watched these men work it was obvious they do not shirk hard work.

    What we never thought about before, is that these men (we saw no women) have a very dangerous job. This stuff can kill you quicker than a bullet and the danger is always present, both on the ground in in the bucket. That danger is there every time the bucket goes up. You have to know what you're doing and you like a highly trained military squad you have to rely on your colleagues. Fatigue is the enemy. But it was obvious these people are professionals committed to making the answer to The Question very legitimate when they say "as soon as possible."

    We're quite sure we speak for thousands of people in Beaufort County when we say to these men: Thank you for what you do and how well you do it. God bless each and every one of you. Stay safe.