Outage numbers drop
UTILITIES
Utilities: Outage numbers drop

By Jack Money

Published: December 14, 2007

Utility companies spent Thursday moving full force into neighborhoods as they continued to make progress in restoring power to homes and businesses.

"You can't throw a rock any direction in this city and not find a utility crew where it lands,” said Andrea Chancellor, spokeswoman for Public Service Co. of Oklahoma in Tulsa.

On Thursday morning, the number of outages in Oklahoma caused by the ice storm Sunday, Monday and Tuesday had dropped to about 350,000.

Numbers fluctuated some throughout the day, but both Chancellor and spokesmen for Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. in Oklahoma City reported making overall progress in reducing the numbers of outages and predicted they would continue to make gains today.

"Customer patience has been tremendous,” said OG&E spokesman Brian Alford during an afternoon news conference, "and that patience has been meaningful for our crews in our field.

"That is important for those guys — they are working extremely long hours.”

Alford told reporters OG&E had about half of its outages restored by mid-Thursday, and that the utility anticipated it would have a total of 80 percent of its outages restored by Sunday, if weather cooperates.

"We are finding the more tree crews we add, then the more quickly we can move through the process,” he said.

Snow won't necessarily knock additional customers off line, he said, but it could slow some restoration work if it becomes to difficult to get into areas away from roads.

Alford said OG&E had 2,159 line workers and tree trimmers in the field Thursday. The utility started the day with about 132,000 customers dark.

He said beyond a priority to make sure public health and safety was initially addressed, OG&E had not given any customers preferential treatment. Utility workers would, however, make sure places such as nursing homes were a high priority once they began working in neighborhood areas.

"If we begin to show preferential treatment, then the process breaks down. We do have a process, and we are working it, day-in and day-out.”

Public Service Co. of Oklahoma, meanwhile, has divided its Tulsa metropolitan service area into four quadrants, and each was being attacked in full force Thursday, Chancellor said.

Workers first are restoring larger lines and then are moving to lateral lines which in turn connect to service drops for homes and businesses.

"We are everywhere,” Chancellor said. "We have got 5,200 line workers, tree trimmers and support personnel out.”

Statewide, Public Service Co. of Oklahoma normally employs just 1,600 employees, "so we have more than tripled the number of workers we normally have here,” she said.

By Thursday afternoon, Public Service Co. of Oklahoma had dropped its outage count to 151,000 in the Tulsa metropolitan area, with another 6,000 in its other service areas.

Sid Sperry, spokesman for the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives, said its workers continue to concentrate on areas in northeast Oklahoma from Cleveland up through Miami, OK.

He also reported positive progress for those residents on Thursday and predicted workers would continue to make headway.

One problem that may slow restoration for some residents, however, are damages to poles supporting heavy transmission lines operated by the Grand River Dam Authority.

That could prevent substations fed by those lines near rural customers near Sperry, Owasso, Prue, Sand Springs and Skiatook from seeing their power restored before Sunday.

Justin Alberty, a spokesman for the Grand River Dam Authority, also said the authority lost transmission lines leading to Miami, Stroud and Skiatook and a line between Claremore and Collinsville.

Alberty said feeds had been restored to Skiatook, Stroud and Claremore.

Workers continued to return power to Pryor and Miami on Thursday, Alberty said.

Problems could have been much worse, Sperry reiterated on Thursday.

Contributing: Staff Writer Josh Rabe

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