While ice may be good for hockey and ice skating, it can wreak havoc on an electric grid if too much ice accumulates on branches and trees and power lines.
That was the case when two ice storms rolled through the Central Wisconsin Electric Cooperative’s (CWEC) service territory Thursday, April 2 and Saturday morning, April 4, leaving extensive damage and power outages. At one point, more than 6,000 meters, about 75% of CWEC roughly 8,400 meters, were out of power. CWEC, through the Restoration of Power in an Emergency program, requested help to restore power from other electric co-ops in Wisconsin.
“Cooperation Among Cooperatives” is one of the seven principles that all cooperatives follow. When CWEC needs help restoring power, a request is made to other cooperatives, who send available linemen crews to help. When other cooperatives need help, CWEC will also help them if CWEC has available linemen crews.
Initially, three additional crews of six linemen from other cooperatives traveled to CWEC to help with power restoration. More crews from other cooperatives arrived over the weekend. In total, CWEC received help from seven electric cooperatives and one utility company. This added 24 linemen to the power restoration effort.
Work was difficult the first day as branches and trees kept falling on power lines, causing more outages, sometimes in the same areas where power was recently restored. This meant multiple outages were restored to the same meter.
The original plan was for linemen to work through the first night, but when darkness arrived and branches and trees continued to fall in no predictable manner, linemen were pulled from the field due to safety concerns. Linemen returned to the field to restore power at 6:30 a.m. Friday morning. Throughout the power restoration effort, linemen would work from 6:30 a.m. to10 p.m. each day, including Easter Sunday.
Another ice storm hit the evening of Friday, April 2 and the early morning of Saturday, April 3. This caused more power outages, some in the same areas where power was restored the previous day.
The process of restoring power was long and strenuous. When an outage comes in, it is impossible to know exactly what the crews will be dealing with until they get to the site. Nothing could have prepared them for the destruction they encountered in a number of our service areas. Linemen dealt with many downed power lines, broken power poles, and branches and trees on power lines.
Eventually, electricity to all members was restored by the end of the day, Tuesday, April 7.
The restoration effort involved replacing 35 power poles and 10 transformers. A total of 1,600 gallons of fuel was used while restoring power. In total, power was restored to 30,000 meters, meaning power was restored multiple times to the same meter. CWEC also received a total of 4,212 calls during the outage.
CWEC could not have restored power alone. We were lucky to have our community, co-ops, and contractors rally around us during our time of need. CWEC would like to thank Adams Columbia Electric Cooperative, Barron Electric Cooperative, Clark Electric Cooperative, Chippewa Valley Electric Cooperative, Price Electric Cooperative, Riverland Electric Cooperative, Taylor Electric Cooperative, and Jolma Utilities for sending crews and equipment. Thank you to our local restaurants for helping feed the linemen while they were out in the field. There were also a number of individuals who brought food to CWEC to help feed the linemen and we thank them for that.
We also thank our members for their patience, understanding and kindness. Being out of power for long stretches of time is frustrating. We appreciate your kind words and actions. Many members also shared encouraging thoughts on our Facebook page.
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