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elt0p0 t1_j1qj79u wrote

Maine is 89% forested. The power companies obviously can't keep up with preventative maintenance.

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hk15 t1_j1rc28m wrote

According to the article, new Hampshire and Vermont have less than half the outages that Maine does. They are also rural, highly forested states. What are they doing that Maine isn't?

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New_Sun6390 t1_j1sn4gh wrote

VT and NH did not get the worst of this storm.

Vermont has no coastline. NH has maybe 10 miles of coastline. Maine had thousands of miles of coastline.

Guess where the winds were strongest for the longest period of time? THE COASTLINE

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[deleted] t1_j1rsuk9 wrote

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hk15 t1_j1rwfmv wrote

https://www.maine.gov/mpuc/regulated-utilities/electricity/map/index

Maine is bigger, but also a sizable portion of the state has no electric service, or people, so it's not fair to directly compare size.

The article op linked clearly shows that Maine has almost twice as many outages, so they clearly aren't doing as well these days.

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[deleted] t1_j1s0sax wrote

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hk15 t1_j1s2bha wrote

It's also very different restoring power in south Portland than it is in Dixville notch NH. It's not as if NH and Vermont are metropolises. They are also highly forested, rural States, facing nearly identical challenges to Maine. And yet they have significantly fewer outages. It's about as apples to apples as you can get.

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[deleted] t1_j1sauwh wrote

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hk15 t1_j1sgh4b wrote

I understand what you're saying, but looking at pure population density isn't a good metric when a large percentage of Maine does not have electric service, or basically any people. I would be interested to see how the population density compares when you remove the areas of Maine that don't have service.

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[deleted] t1_j1sl7cd wrote

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hk15 t1_j1sqklr wrote

So it shows that CMP is better than emec/nhec/vec, but they don't include data for "major event days" (figure 4, page 6). Any links to data that includes major events?

Also this study is from an obviously biased source, it's an organization fighting against the idea of turning CMP into a public co-op. So it's not surprising that they're cherry picking data to make them look good compared other electric co-ops.

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raynedanser t1_j1qsisg wrote

How far back from the roads should people clear? Should we be clear cutting our yards? 🙄

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Clifford_2zero7 t1_j1rb7ub wrote

I think that's a good question to put into the mix. I just got power back myself midnight. The power went out from a big old tree on someones property that they failed to maintain. I like trees and prefer a wooded property than bare but people should use common sence and maintain their property. Anything that looks like it could hit a line should be put into consideration. That one tree cost thousands and thousands of dollars to people on my road. Myself, I paid over 120 in generator fuel, plus missed work (over $400) and not to mention stress.😅😅 Is what it is I expect it especially by now where i live but if we all do our part collectively we can make a difference.

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6byfour t1_j1rtq8f wrote

CMP has 2300 miles of line. How far would you like them to cut back on each side, and how much are you willing to pay for it?

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PatsFreak101 t1_j1qpsnh wrote

They stopped doing maintenance about the time they were bought out by foreign interests.

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gunksmtn1216 t1_j1qvbjc wrote

Every circuit gets cut every 5 years. This isn’t true

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indyaj t1_j1qxl27 wrote

That is not enough. Obviously.

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gunksmtn1216 t1_j1qydxh wrote

Unless you clear cut 50ft from the conductor you’re going to have vegetation related outages. CMP has one of the more intensive specs in the industry.

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indyaj t1_j1qzpz8 wrote

It's not about clear cutting. It's about the 5 year plan which is bullshit in a state with so many trees, and a variable amount in each area. We're all being managed under the same restrictive tenet. It needs to not only be more frequent in the troublesome areas but it can't be as rigid as it is. I've sent pictures of huge trees teetering over lines, basically my next power outage when the wind blows over 5mph, and they won't come out and manage it. They're like "5 year plan. we don't do maintenance outside of that." Then the wind blows, the tree takes out the lines and 1000 people are out of power for hours.

My point is there are better ways to do this other than what they're doing.

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Technical-Role-4346 t1_j1r6qq2 wrote

Perhaps they have reduced maintenance but I noticed a lot of old poles being replaced proactively the last couple of summers.
In my neighborhood they replaced guy wires and anchors this past summer. Many of the outages were caused by trees uprooted and toppled by high winds. Predicting which trees might be uprooted is not easy. Cutting everything within 50+ feet would not be welcome in most neighborhoods. I live in a city and lost power for only about 6 hours.

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6byfour t1_j1rsw9o wrote

Source?

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PatsFreak101 t1_j1s9d55 wrote

The fact anytime they actual do tree trimming it’s reported in all the news outlets so we see them doing it despite the fact outages are worse than ever from tree damage

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