Spring green signals 'go' for right-of-way clearing
By Michael Callahan
Electric Power Associations of Mississippi Executive Vice President/CEO

This time of year, the Mississippi landscape begins celebrating its spring revival with the emergence of welcome color.

From our perspective, the bright new greens signal not only warmer days ahead but the need to step up our right-of-way maintenance to control new growth.

Unfortunately, spring in Mississippi is usually ushered in with severe thunderstorms sweeping the region from west to east. These storms can easily generate winds of 58 mph or more (the threshold for the “severe” designation by the National Weather Service). Downbursts and straight-line winds can reach 100 to 150 mph, enough to flip a car or truck. Adding to the commotion are frequent lightning strikes, hail and the threat of tornadoes.

Severe weather is hard on power lines. Utility poles and substations are vulnerable to damaging lightning strikes. Power lines running through wooded areas (as many of ours do) can be damaged by falling limbs and trees. A tornado can mangle miles of lines in minutes.
Even on a calm day, a tree or a branch can fall onto a power line due to natural deterioration, timber harvesting or other reasons. Our electrical system is designed to recover by itself if the contact with the line is brief. But sometimes a tree will take the line down with it.

There’s no way to stop bad weather, timber cutters, vehicle accidents and even animals from causing power outages. But we’re not completely helpless. Keeping trees, limbs, underbrush and vines from reaching power lines is one of the most effective means we have of lessening a storm’s impact.

We hope you will cooperate with right-of-way workers should they need to trim a tree on your property to protect your or your neighbors’ electric service. These workers are trained to spot potential power-outage hazards and to take the proper steps to eliminate them.

Electric power association crews and contractors inspect power lines throughout the year to identify and remove intruding vegetation from power line rights of way. They use an arsenal of equipment for cutting safely and quickly. Some use an impressive wheeled tree trimmer with a circular power saw at the end of a 75-foot telescopic boom.

Maintaining rights of way is one of our biggest operating expenses—not surprising, given the rural nature of our service areas. So we wouldn’t do it if we weren’t certain of its long-term benefit. The payoff is a drastic reduction in the frequency and duration of power outages.

With the reliability of your electric service at stake, we believe the funding of a diligent right-of-way maintenance program is money well spent.

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