2
the
Kilowatt F MAY 2013 INSIDE YOUR CO-OP
A Touchstone Energy Cooperative
Kiwash Electric
Cooperative, Inc. Providing the service
that lights up your life.
Office Location PO Box 100
120 W. 1st Street
Cordell, Oklahoma (888) 832-3362
www.kiwash.coop
Find us on Facebook Staff
Dennis Krueger manager
Wendy Putman director of finance
Lisa Willard director of
communications Roy Dewees
director of operations
Board of Trustees officers
Jack Sawatzky president
Robert Travis vice president
Virginia Walker sec.-treasurer
John Schaufele
asst. sec.-treasurer directors
Ralph Cunningham Leslie Hinds Rex Eagan
Ice and 40 mph winds don't make life easy for lineman and electric companies. In western Oklahoma, particularly, rural electric lines and poles have little protection from the elements. This leaves our system more vulnerable to ice, sustained winds, and wind gusts, which is exactly what happened on April 10, 2013.
Your Kiwash Electric system includes three thousand miles of lines and poles that span a broad five-county area. During the April storm, the majority of these lines danced in the winds like a jump rope. You can imagine the damage: Electric lines on brand new poles broke from slapping together; and some of our newest cross-arms snapped as the lines smacked into them.
The April storm came on the heels of another icy snow storm that hit in late February. We were still in the process of repairing system damage caused by the first storm when we were hit with another. The storm damages were similar; broken poles and lines wrapped together or burnt down from clanging together.
These problems are not the result of the aging electric system; we've spent the past eight years upgrading it. While we wisely spend your dollars to improve system reliability, Mother Nature can still humble us with her wrath, and turn a lovely day into an ugly storm.
During the April storm, our crews reported from a quarter inch of
ice on top of the lines to near three quarters of inch on top. These are not circumference figures, but ice accumulations from the top of the line to the top of the ice. Below the lines the ice accumulation was even thicker.
For members who have not lived on Kiwash lines very long, and older members, too, we know these storm situations can be frustrating. They are equally trying for our crews and contractors who are out there fighting the elements to restore power as quickly as possible.
It's important to explain that during a major outage, the problem that affects your line may not be visible from your home. Instead, the damage causing your power outage might be located miles away.
Repairing that damage is a tedious process,and even more so when weather and working conditions are miserable. Electric utilities must work from the substation out to the end of the line to complete the repair mission. For an electric co-op, that substation might be located as far as 25 miles away.
Round Two Second ice storm in two months hits Kiwash Electric
While inspecting this distance requires more work, trust me, you will not gain power to your house any faster if we repair your broken line before the main feeders lines are energized.
During the recent storm, six of our 10 substations were off due to damaged transmission lines running from Western Farmers Electric Cooperative generation facilities in Mooreland and Anadarko. These problems slowed repair efforts despite the unwavering commitment of co-op crews who somehow kept slogging through it all until power was completely restored.
If you called to report an outage during the recent storm, your call was likely received by a call center employee. Kiwash Electric hired a call center to assist us due to the high call volume. They were able to answer the phone 10 times faster, freeing our employees to handle other responsibilities. We hope this decision allowed you to report your problem more expediently and with fewer busy signals.
Seventy-five years ago our competitors chose not to serve rural areas because it was not profitable to their investors, but your electric co-op found a way. Unfortunately, the problems that arise from serving isolated rural areas can become even more apparent during a major storm. After seventy-five years of service, we still strive for perfection. We appreciate your cooperation and your understanding.
By Dennis Krueger general manager
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