Co-ops Work Together
DISASTER STRIKES! Co-ops work together to restore power
At 6:30 a.m., your alarm clock beeps and you hop out of bed. You flip on the bathroom light, take a quick shower and blow dry your hair. After you dress for work, you grab a V8 from the fridge, stick a bagel in the toaster, and turn on the TV to watch the news.
If you set aside $1 every time you used a form of electricity each day for a year, you’d have a healthy savings account. Electricity has become a necessity in every facet of our lives: We rely on computers at work; we need appliances to cook and clean; we want to watch television and relax. Electricity is something we all use consistently and continuously throughout our days – and many of us take this convenience for granted.
Recent snow and ice storms in January toppled hundreds of power lines, poles and crossarms across southwestern North Dakota, leaving hundreds of consumers in the dark. The three electric cooperatives that are managed by the Innovative Energy Alliance fielded hundreds of calls from concerned members who wondered how long they would be without power. Mor-Gran-Sou Electric, Roughrider Electric and Slope Electric want to take this opportunity to explain how electricity travels, why outages occur, and what steps cooperatives take to restore the power. Most importantly, the three cooperatives thank you, the member-owners, for your support and patience during a hectic week of outages.
How does electricity travel?
In North Dakota, much of our electricity is generated by coal-fired power plants. Whether it is produced by coal, wind, water or another resource, electricity travels a complex grid of power lines in a loop called a circuit. In order for electricity to flow continuously, the loop must not contain any breaks. This is called a closed circuit.
To flow easily, electricity needs a good conductor such as copper or aluminum; that’s why power lines are made of metal. When electricity leaves its generating source, it travels on thick, metal transmission lines that are supported by heavy, metal towers.
Traveling at 186,000 miles per second, electricity reaches its first delivery point: a transmission substation. Here, the electricity is “stepped down” or reduced to a smaller voltage so it can travel on smaller distribution lines that are connected with wooden poles.
The electric current then branches out to one of many distribution substations in a particular system, where the voltage is again reduced. From there, the electricity travels distribution lines, either overhead or underground, to reach its final destination: a transformer, or box, outside your home or place of business. Here the voltage is once again reduced before it is fed into your meter. The meter reads how much electricity, or kilowatt-hours, you use each day.
Why did your electric cooperative recently experience power outages?
If you’ve endured a few North Dakota winters, you’ve come to expect subzero temperatures, gusty winds, icy roads, poor visibility and snow storms that can last a few days. The recent snow and ice storm at the end of January wasn’t uncommon or unexpected, although it did pack a one-two punch that knocked out power for thousands of consumers across the state.
This particular storm was more brutal than most because weather conditions combined to wreak havoc on your electric cooperative’s power system. Ice clung and built on the power lines, causing them to sag under the tremendous weight. Then, blustery winds rippled the already-heavy lines, making them “gallop” and eventually cross. Because so many of our system’s lines and poles dot the prairies where there are no shelter belts or housing developments for protection, the elements snapped hundreds of power lines and poles like tooth picks, both at the transmission and distribution levels. When a line breaks, it causes a disruption, or opening, in the circuit. This results in a power outage.
After a major disaster occurs, how does the co-op choose which part of the system to fix first?
Don Franklund, co-manager of the Innovative Energy Alliance, says an electric cooperative’s priority is to get the largest number of members back online in the shortest amount of time. That means fixing the transmission lines first, and then tackling the three-phase distribution lines and poles, the main single-phase lines and poles, and finally the single-phase feeds to homes.
Fixing the broken system requires electric cooperatives to form and follow a strategic plan. After a snow and ice storm like the one we had in January, the cooperative takes outage calls from members and damage reports from line crews who patrolled lines. Outages are marked on a system map that shows the location of every member-owner. The damage and current conditions including weather dictate where the line crews will go first.
Because of the extensive damage across the service areas of Mor-Gran-Sou Electric, Roughrider Electric and Slope Electric, cooperatives sent out a call to neighboring Touchstone Energy Cooperatives and contractors for extra manpower, line construction equipment, and materials and poles. This coordination of efforts — along with the knowledge, skill and commitment of countless hard-working lineworkers — brought power back to our members.
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Reviewing the damage and repairing the system
As of Tuesday, Feb. 2, electric cooperatives reported the following damage:
- Slope Electric estimates 850 poles were damaged and about 1,500 members were without power. Lineworkers continue to fix severely damaged lines to single-phase feeds. The co-op hopes to have all residential members online by Monday, Feb. 8. If you see downed wires or broken power poles, please call Slope Electric at (701) 579-4191 with the location.
- Mor-Gran-Sou Electric estimates 1,000 poles were damaged and about 4,000 members were without power at some point during or after this particular storm. Lineworkers continue to fix severely damaged lines to single-phase feeds. The co-op hopes to have all residential members online by Thursday, Feb. 4. If you see downed wires or broken power poles, please call Mor-Gran-Sou Electric at (701) 597-3301, (701) 663-0297 or (800) 750-8212 with the location.
- Roughrider Electric estimates 424 poles were damaged and about 4,500 members were without power. Lineworkers have since restored all known outages. If you see downed wires or broken power poles, please call Roughrider Electric at the Dickinson office at (701) 483-5111 or (800) 627-8470, or at the Hazen office at (701) 748-2293 or (800) 748-5533 with the location.
