On alert through the winter

Electric co-ops effectively respond to disasters.

A New Year has arrived. One of the mat­ters fore­most in our minds at YEC is that the first quar­ter presents us with some uncer­tain­ties asso­ci­at­ed with win­ter weath­er.

In the 74 years YEC has been sup­ply­ing elec­tric ser­vice, we’ve been hit with a mul­ti­tude of mem­o­rable storm emer­gen­cies. Dis­as­ters exact an enor­mous cost, both in eco­nom­ic and human terms. Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tives, like YEC, have a unique and effec­tive approach to emer­gency man­age­ment and dis­as­ter recov­ery: mutu­al assis­tance. Fol­low­ing a dis­as­ter, like the win­ter ice storm that blast­ed Hor­ry Elec­tric’s ter­ri­to­ry this past Feb­ru­ary, co-ops will rapid­ly deploy sup­port staff and equip­ment to emer­gency and recov­ery zones to assist sis­ter co-ops. The coor­di­nat­ed response, which entailed the mar­shalling of a host of resources, could hard­ly have gone bet­ter.

A similar game plan

We’re pre­pared to invoke a sim­i­lar game plan when the next storm emer­gency comes along whether it occurs in our ser­vice area or in anoth­er. Since all co-ops use line-con­struc­tion stan­dards that are iden­ti­cal, crews can begin repair work almost imme­di­ate­ly after arrival at any co-op.

YEC has tak­en oth­er steps in prepa­ra­tion for inclement weath­er. Our crews are sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly mak­ing improve­ments to our pow­er lines. Poles and wires with greater capac­i­ties and strength are being installed. Where pos­si­ble, pow­er lines are being relo­cat­ed to cor­ri­dors less vul­ner­a­ble to dam­age from falling trees. YEC is also con­tin­u­ing to devote expen­di­tures to right-of-way main­te­nance. Keep­ing pow­er lines clear of trees and oth­er under­growth is essen­tial to our sup­ply­ing qual­i­ty ser­vice.

Vital communication

Elec­tric coop­er­a­tives across the coun­try learn from dis­as­ters. We learn how to pro­tect our sys­tems bet­ter, how to become more resilient and how to com­mu­ni­cate more effec­tive­ly.

One of YEC’s top pri­or­i­ties is to keep our mem­bers bet­ter informed, not only dur­ing dis­as­ters, but also when any type of out­age occurs. Learn about your coop­er­a­tive’s new online Out­age Map that gives real-time infor­ma­tion on ser­vice inter­rup­tions in our ser­vice area. This new tech­nol­o­gy will help us serve you bet­ter, and we are excit­ed to intro­duce it to you at the start of this New Year.

We can’t pre­dict the weath­er, but we can be pre­pared. You can be cer­tain that YEC is pre­pared and will respond to all types of out­ages as effec­tive­ly, quick­ly and safe­ly as pos­si­ble.

Have a hap­py and safe New Year!

Paul Basha
Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer

---

Save the Date: May 9, 2015

YEC’s employ­ees Anna Young, Cathy Heffn­er, Bon­nie Whet­s­tine, Paulette War­moth and Ann Faulk invite you to attend YEC’s 74th Annu­al Meet­ing on Sat­ur­day, May 9, at YEC’s head­quar­ters in York. A $15 pow­er bill cred­it has been reserved for you.