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Why Vegetation Management
Our mission is built around providing reliable electric service to our members. An important part of making that possible is utilizing vegetation management. The work we do with vegetation management helps keep outages and blinks to a minimum, reduces the potential for the public to come in contact with electric lines, and helps line crews access the line for maintenance and outage restoration.
Since beginning a vegetation management program five years ago, we have seen a drastic decrease in power outages related to trees contacting power lines. Although not always easy, the work we have done has made a difference.
Scheduled Maintenance Cycles
We have found that performing routine tree and brush management work is the most effective for keeping power lines clear of hazards. Our service territory is divided up into sections and each section is on a multi-year maintenance cycle. Initial work includes tree removal, pruning, and clearing of brush.
Two growing seasons after the clearing, licensed applicators treat the re-sprouting brush in the corridors using state registered herbicides. These applications are crucial in controlling our costs because they are approximately one-third the cost of mechanical mowing and several times less expensive than manual cutting.
Prior to either initial clearing or herbicide spraying, you will be notified of work being done in your area.
Unscheduled Maintenance
Throughout the year, we perform routine line patrol to ensure the system is working as safely and efficiently as possible. During this line patrol, we often find areas in our service territory that have been affected by storms, dead or dying trees, and those that have grown faster than expected. Trees posing a high risk of affecting the near-by power lines will be marked to be moved at a later date.
Occasionally, members notice trees encroaching on their primary or secondary power lines on their property. If you have questions regarding assistance with tree pruning or removal, we encourage you to work with a professional to get the work done. The following tree contractors currently perform this work for People's and are well-versed in operating around power lines.
