Line workers keep the lights on
When bad weather is about to hit, whether that’s a small local storm or a big one like last February’s ice storm, crews start preparing their bucket trucks and other equipment to head out to restore power. They load up their trucks with equipment, spools of wire, poles and transformers, tire chains in the winter, and other safety measures. Then they head out to your homes, farms, and businesses to work tirelessly until everyone’s power is restored, whether that’s in an hour or several days later.
But what happens on an average day when there are few to no outages? Our line crews are still busy doing tasks to keep the power on. They may be out installing electrical lines to newly built homes or businesses, maintaining and upgrading existing lines, or repairing equipment on poles. They may be replacing poles that are damaged or rotted, or upgrading underground lines. They could be standing by with vegetation crews that are flying an aerial trimmer to trim trees in case an outage occurs. They also are spending time in safety briefings and training.
Keeping the power on for our 123,000 member accounts also requires a team of many other employees including utility foresters, fleet mechanics, engineers, dispatchers, metering specialists, warehouse workers, and more. They are responsible for clearing rights-of-way, maintaining and upgrading substations, and designing our electrical grid. They maintain our vehicles so our trucks are ready to roll and ensure we have the equipment we need at the ready as supplies are depleted.
And supporting all of these workers are many other employees in jobs like member service and accounting, information technology and procurement, energy services, and community and economic development.
When you talk with a member service representative or see a crew out working, you can be confident that each of our 250 employees contributes to ensuring you have dependable service — and keeping power on.
From the February 2023 issue of Ohio Cooperative Living.