Vermont electric utilities are reporting more than 30,000 customers without electricity. Some are likely to be without power into the weekend, state officials said Thursday.
Halfway up Woods Road in Warren, trees covered with snow sagged over a single-phase power line causing the power to go out. A utility line crew contracted by Green Mountain Power was trimming trees to free the 7,200-volt tap line.
Ken Camley, a line worker contracted by the utility, was cutting branches with a chainsaw from a bucket lift. Camley recalled his 37 years on the job.
“There has been more outages in the last two years that I can even remember,” Camley said. “We just got done with one [on] Thanksgiving.”
A state official said Thursday that GMP, the state’s largest electric utility, has all of its contracted line workers restoring power. Camley and his crew worked through the night on Tuesday when a mix of snow and rain covered much of the state. The crew began work again at 4:00 a.m. on Thursday to repair damage from the second storm.
At 2:15 p.m., a utility line worker checked their phone and saw 23,000 residents were without power. “Last time I checked there was 18,000,” Camley said. “It’s going back out almost as fast as it’s going back on.”
Mary Powell, president and CEO of Green Mountain Power, said the heavy, wet snow combined with the duration of the storm made the damage worse. She said many crews are re-restoring power they had already restored.
“We were not anticipating this kind of weather event,” she said. “Nobody even came close to anticipating the kind of damage this would create. To put it in context for folks, this is unprecedented in the team’s history and I have folks who have been working in the business for 30 years.”
At a news conference at the State Emergency Operations Center in Waterbury on Thursday, Gov. Peter Shumlin said it may take days before power is restored.
“I encourage Vermonters to do what we do best in situations like these: each help your neighbors who might be without power for long periods of time,” Shumlin said. “Ensure that we take care of each other because obviously this could be dangerous.”
“This is actually pretty huge,” said Chris Recchia, commissioner of the Department of Public Service. “It’s good that the temperature is not so low that people are going to be in danger. We do have shelters available if people need them.”
At 9:00 a.m. Thursday, the department joined the state’s utilities, National Guard and border security in a conference call to discuss the storm. They assessed where the outages are occurring, how crews are responding and where they can find additional repair crews.
Kerrick Johnson is vice president for external affairs at the Vermont Electric Power Company, known as VELCO, which maintains the state’s power grid. He said the company’s role in the time of a power outage is to ensure that state emergency officials and utilities can communicate. The company maintains a statewide radio system for this reason.
The company is also developing a weather analytics tool that aims to provide high-resolution forecasts and localized weather predictions up to two days in advance. Some utilities hope the tool will allow them to prepare better for damaging storms.
The water density of this week’s storm was a surprise, state and utility officials say. According to Roger Hill, a professional meteorologist in Worcester, the water to snow ratio where he is located was 5 to 1. He said this is unusually wet and more common in coastal areas.
Last year, Recchia said nearly all the state utilities broke their budgets for storm-related damages. He said this is due, in part, to more ice and heavy snow.
“It’s getting worse. We’re going over budget. And those costs do need to be recovered in rates through a rate adjustment,” he said. “Whether that’s climate change or not, it doesn’t really matter. We’re getting warmer types of storms that cause heavier damage.”
Powell said the utility spends up to $15 million per year on damages.
“That is very different than 10 to 20 years ago,” she said. “The severity is increased and we don’t see any change to that.”
Across the region, 8,500 miles of high-voltage transmission line make up the New England electric grid. From these arteries, electric utilities distribute power to customers along smaller lines. In Vermont, this distribution network is especially vulnerable in rural parts of the state.
On Woods Road in Warren, Green Mountain Power workers turned the power on after three hours of tree trimming. Camley and the rest of the crew plan to return home at 9:00 p.m.
“Maybe we’ll end up somewhere else. I don’t know,” he said. “Whatever line is out next.”
