Gerald Ensley: Rapidly restoring power no easy task under Tallahassee’s canopy

(This column was originally published in the Tallahassee Democrat on Sept. 12, 2004)

"Hey," you wondered after Tropical Storm Frances, "how come the guy across the street never lost power when my electricity went out?" Or maybe you wondered "How come some people were out of power for only an hour while I was without power for 14 hours?"

The answers, officials say, amount to priorities, logistics --- and those pesky trees that make Tallahassee so beautiful.

Because in any storm-related power outages, the city electric department restores service according to an established list of priorities and by going to the site of the problem. And almost all storm-related power outages in Tallahassee --- 90% during Frances --- are caused by trees, tree limbs and tree branches falling on power poles or power lines.

All of which makes restoring electric power a constant juggling act.

"Our primary role is to provide reliable electric service to our customers," said Kevin Wailes, general manager of the city's electric utilities operation. "But we have to do it in a safe manner for our customers and employees. Getting the power back on five minutes faster if someone gets killed would not be a good trade."

About 35,000 city electric customers lost electric power at some point during Tropical Storm Frances. The first power outages occurred at 4 p.m. on Sept. 5. At the peak, on Sept. 6, there were 16,000 customers without service --- and some were without power for more than 12 hours.

But power was restored to customers throughout the event. And by 2 a.m. Sept. 8, the last 500 customers without electricity had their power restored.

"Can we look back and see areas (during Frances) where we can improve? Sure," Wailes said. "But on the whole, I thought our people did an absolutely excellent job."

The city electric system consists of 200 miles of transmission lines, carrying power to 17 substations, whose 150 circuits distribute electricity through 1,750 miles of distribution lines to 100,000 customers.

The city electric utility has 110 employees on its repair and maintenance crews. When a storm knocks out power, computers automatically notify officials of some problems, such as blown circuits at a sub-station. But other problems are discovered only when they are reported and require an on-site visit to determine the cause, such as downed poles, downed lines, and shorted-out transformers.

During the three-plus days of Frances, the city electric utility repair crews worked round-the-clock, with 16 crews in the daytime and seven to eight crews at night. The crews had to make 1,600 site visits to fix electrical problems.

Crews were dispatched by a priority list:

Electric service is restored first to hospitals, group shelters, key traffic intersections and individuals who have been certified by Leon County health officials as having a medical necessity for electric power.

Next on the priority list are areas where crews can restore power to the most customers at one time. That means populous neighborhoods usually have their power restored sooner than sparsely populated streets.

Third on the list are clumps of one to 20 houses without power because of individual problems after the rest of their neighborhood has had power restored. Fourth on the list are customers served by power poles that have fallen: Because it is a difficult, time-consuming and potentially dangerous job to erect a new pole (especially in high winds, rain or darkness), officials generally wait until a storm passes before replacing a downed pole.

"You don't want to be in the third and fourth priority," said city spokeswoman Michelle Bono. "But when people understand how we do it, they're usually more tolerant."

The time varies for each task: It takes less time to replace a blown transformer than to remove fallen trees on wires. The time may also vary from street to street, as not all residents in the same neighborhood are on the same circuit or substation. That's why you may be without power while the people across the street have their lights on.

The city purposely connects residents within a neighborhood to different circuits so that if one circuit goes down and can't be fixed for an extended period, residents can be hooked up to another circuit serving that neighborhood.

"It's frustrating. People have the perception that when they call (in an outage), we ought to be able to tell them when the power will be back on and should have someone there immediately," Wailes said. "It's not that simple."

The chief cause of power outages in Tallahassee is trees, from wind-uprooted trees knocking power lines and poles to broken branches shorting out transformers.

Wailes acknowledged Tallahassee's tree trimming policy plays a role. For years, trees around power lines were trimmed 10-12 feet away from power lines every five years. In 1997, at the recommendation of a citizen advisory committee, the tree trimming policy was changed to 4-6 feet every 18 months.

Some residents complain officials ought to trim trees more severely around power lines to reduce power outages --- although the 10-12 feet clearance policy was in effect when Hurricane Kate hit in 1985 and caused weeks-long power outages. But Bono said most citizens support the closer tree-trimming standards.

"During a hurricane, it may not seem like a good thing," she said. "But the other 360-or-so days of the year, we love the look and feel of this community because it is so canopied."

Ann Bidlingmaier, a longtime tree advocate who served on the 1997 advisory committee, agreed. She said the trimming standards caused fewer problems during Frances than trees falling because of root damage inflicted by construction projects.

"Tallahassee is Tree City USA; we need to retain our commitment to maintaining our natural resource," Bidlingmaier said. "I think the price of living in Tallahassee is the occasional inconvenience when power lines are damaged (by trees)."

Gerald Ensley was a reporter and columnist for the Tallahassee Democrat from 1980 until his retirement in 2015. He died in 2018 following a stroke. The Tallahassee Democrat is publishing columns capturing Tallahassee’s history from Ensley’s vast archives each Sunday through 2024 in the Opinion section as part of the TLH 200: Gerald Ensley Memorial Bicentennial Project.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Gerald Ensley: Rapidly restoring power no easy task under Tallahassee’s canopy