Utilities Consider Changes That Could Avert Huge Power Outages

Officials of the state’s four utilities are beginning to assess what they could do to avoid the huge power outages that hit December 12th.

They agree on one thing.

To prevent a power outage in this day and age you need to eliminate trees or eliminate the possibility of a tree or a branch coming into contact with a wire.

That’s Seth Wheeler of the New Hampshire Electric Co-op in Plymouth.

The remedy sounds simple.

Just cut back the trees encroaching on the transmission wires.

But state law says utility crews have to ask landowners permission to cut a tree if it sits on private property.

Martin Murray of Public Service of New Hampshire, or PSNH, says that law is unique to this state.

What happens in other states that appears to work effectively is that the power company notifies you, the property owner that it will trim that tree. Now you have a chance then to speak up if you feel that you’d like to talk to them about it and a conversation would ensue…...

PSNH is asking state lawmakers to pass a measure making New Hampshire’s tree trimming law more like those in other states.

In the meantime, utilities are looking at other options that could minimize the chance of widespread outages.

For instance, they could bury power lines to keep them safe from wind, trees and ice.

Seth Wheeler of the Electric Coop says it’s a great idea, until you look at the price tag.

At a cost of about 50 to 100,000 dollars a mile, under ideal conditions, that becomes financially untenable. People wouldn’t be able to afford their electric bills.

Utilities could also help property owners generate more of their own power, with windmills, solar cells, or hydro electric systems.

George Gantz of Unitil which serves the Concord area and part of the seacoast, says the problem with each of these technologies is they have real shortcomings.

You know photovoltaic’s is clearly related to daytime sunshine, doesn’t generate anything at night so if you want to put in battery storage then you’re talking about a much more expensive proposition you know…wind power only generates when the wind blows so everything has tradeoffs in the process but in general distributed generation is a useful way to go…..

Some utility officials say they don’t know if it makes real sense to do anything more in the future than expanded tree trimming.

Their argument is that major ice storms rarely hit New Hampshire.

But Dr. Cameron Wake, a climate researcher based at the University of New Hampshire, says storms are getting more severe in every season, not just winter.

All of the climate models and the work that we’ve done suggest that this trend is going to continue, we’re going to see more extreme precipitation events in the future. And that combined with…developing our landscape which creates more impervious surfaces will likely lead to more flooding which will damage a whole range of infrastructure….

The state’s regulators plan to review the issues that came up in the massive power outage.

They’ll clearly look at the tree trimming matter.

And they’ll also examine if the utilities were properly staffed to deal with the outage.

The Public Utility Commission or PUC has not yet scheduled when their formal review will begin.

But they promise to consider any issue that might head off another widespread outage.