• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

York Electric Cooperative, Inc.

  • Rural Internet
    • Service Area
  • View / Pay Bill
    • Quick Pay
    • Register
    • Forgot Password?
  • Outages
    • Outage Map
    • Outage Center
      • PowerTouch
      • Outage Texting
      • Mobile App
    • Storm Center
      • Storm Preparation
        • Hurricane Readiness
        • Generator Safety
      • After the Storm
      • Submit Photos
    • Restoring Power
  • Member Services
    • Contact Us
    • Forms & Publications
    • Office Locations
    • Report an Outage
    • Report an Outdoor Light Outage
    • Update Account Information
    • Report Energy Theft/Tampering
    • Safety Demonstration Request
    • Media Contacts
    • FAQ
  • More results...

    Generic selectors
    Exact matches only
    Search in title
    Search in content
    Post Type Selectors
    Search in posts
    Search in pages
Skip NavigationMenu
  • My Service
    • Close
    • New Members
      • Start Residential Electric Service
      • Welcome to YEC
    • Billing
    • Meter Locations
    • Peak Demand
    • Outdoor Lighting
      • Outdoor Lighting Info Request
      • Report Outdoor Lighting Outage
    • Underground Service
    • Forms & Publications
    • My Business
      • Start Residential Electric Service
    • Close
  • My Community
    • Close
    • Scholarships & Events
    • Bright Ideas Grant
    • Learn with YEC
      • Learn With Art
        • Co-op Magnet Design Challenge
        • Gear up for Safety Coloring Contest
      • Safety Videos
      • Soft Skills
      • Energy Glossary
    • Safety Demonstration Request
    • Operation Round Up®
      • Operation Round Up Application
      • Disposition Statement
    • The Burrell Foundation
    • Economic Development
      • Affiliations
      • East York Industrial Park
    • South Carolina Living
    • Submit Photos
    • Co-op Connections®
      • All Discounts
      • Co-op Connections for Businesses
        • Business Contract & Application
    • Close
  • My Cooperative
    • Close
    • Annual Meeting
    • Support Your Co-op
    • Contact Us
      • Report an Outage
      • Report an Outdoor Light Outage
      • Outdoor Lighting Info Request
      • Report Energy Theft/Tampering
      • Media Contacts
    • Office Locations & Contacts
    • Service Area
    • Member Survey
    • Capital Credits
      • Unclaimed Checks Searchable Database
    • Leadership Team
      • Board of Trustees
      • Board Meetings
    • Careers
      • Employment Application
      • Statement of Nondiscrimination
    • Meeting Room Facility
    • History
      • 75th Anniversary 2016
      • What is a Co-op
    • Rules & Regulations
      • Bylaws
    • South Carolina Living
    • Close
  • Energy Services
    • Close
    • Electric Vehicles
      • Choose EV
      • Electric Vehicle Survey
    • Smart Thermostat Program
      • Smart Thermostat Offer
      • Enroll a Smart Thermostat
    • Solar
      • What is Solar?
      • Rooftop Solar
      • Community Solar Farm
        • Solar Farm FAQ
      • Solar Advisory Program
        • Solar Interest Form
        • Solar Interconnect Application
    • Energy Efficiency
      • 101 Energy Tips
      • Spring & Summer
      • Fall & Winter
      • Energy Calculators
      • Energy Smart SC
      • Home Energy Saver Adventure
      • Shop Smart Solutions
      • Together We Save
      • How-To Videos
      • EnergyWorks Home Tour
      • Appliances & Insulation
    • Green Power
      • Green Power Sign Up
    • Dual Fuel Heat Pump Rebate
    • Energy Audits
    • Federal Tax Credits
    • Agricultural Energy Audit
    • Generator Program
      • Generator Program Application
    • Energy Standards
    • Close
  • Safety
    • Close
    • Learning with YEC Safety Videos
    • Safety Demonstrations
      • Safety Demonstration Request
    • Indoor Safety
    • Outdoor Safety
    • Generator Safety
    • Overloads
    • Shock Hazards
    • Outlets
    • Water Danger
    • Overhead Lines
    • Energy Glossary
    • SafeElectricity.org
    • Close
  • Reliability
    • Close
    • Right of Way Maintenance
      • Schedule
      • Trade a Tree
    • Close
  • News
    • Close
    • COVID-19 Information
    • YEC News
    • e-News
    • South Carolina Living
    • Media Contacts
    • Close
  • COVID-19 Resources
    • Close
    • Stay Plus
      • SC Stay Plus FAQ
    • Close
You are here: Home / News & Announcements / Diggers, dozers and boom trucks

October 20, 2021

Diggers, dozers and boom trucks

New Horizon Electric Cooperative provides essential equipment for YEC, Upstate co-ops. To stand before them, one can be both intimidated and impressed. They are huge and often loud. They travel to remote locations, reach towering heights and are operated by skilled, courageous men. They perform challenging and often dangerous tasks whenever called upon.

But for all their horsepower and sophisticated machinery, the specialized equipment used by New Horizon Electric has a simple mission, according to York Electric Cooperative CEO Paul Basha.

“Can New Horizon do something more efficiently or cost-effective than we can do ourselves?” says Basha. “That’s the crux of why they exist.”

New Horizon Electric came into existence in 1998 to provide transmission to its five-member distribution electric cooperatives in South Carolina’s Upstate—York Electric, Broad River Electric, Laurens Electric, Little River Electric and Blue Ridge Electric. As the industry and intrastate partnerships changed over the last 23 years, so has the services of New Horizon Electric.

Vehicle propelled by two endless metal belts.
A New Horizon Electric track vehicle replaces a broken pole in some of York Electric’s roughest terrain. Photo by Josh P. Crotzer

The Laurens-based cooperative no longer owns transmission lines, but instead provides maintenance for York Electric and the other member cooperative’s infrastructure—hence the need for track vehicles, 80-foot digger derricks and 125-foot knuckle boom bucket trucks. That work is mostly done hot, or without interrupting the flow of electricity traveling over those lines to York Electric and the other member cooperatives.

New Horizon Electric also provides construction, testing, inspections and maintenance for the dozens of substations serving electric cooperative members in the Upstate. It also manages the cooperatives’ supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and other network monitoring, design and protection.

“As far as I can tell, New Horizon is the only entity like it in the country,” says CEO Bobby Smith. “We’re considered a G&T (generation and transmission), but we don’t have any energy sales. What we do puts us in a whole different bucket.”

In relation to outage restoration, New Horizon Electric most often works on transmission lines. However, when restoration or maintenance needs go beyond standard distribution line work, the New Horizon crews and equipment are dispatched.

Two crew members atop full-extended bucket trucks.
Bucket trucks that reach heights of 100 to 125 feet were needed for York Electric’s Catawba River crossing project in August. Photo by Erin Powell

In August, the crews were working on York Electric’s system, running a line across the Catawba River near the Riverwalk Trestle in Rock Hill. Smith says they even used a drone to fly a pull line approximately 1,040 feet across the river.

“That was about a two and a half week-long venture with our crews there with three steel pole structures on each side of the river,” recounts Smith. “It was distribution line, but we were using transmission size poles.”

Basha says the river crossing project is an ideal example of New Horizon meeting its mission.

“We would have to spend millions of dollars on equipment to complete that project, and then hardly ever use it again,” he says. “It makes more sense for them to do it, allowing for cooperatives to share the cost.”

Earlier in the year, a tree destined to fall was threatening one of York Electric’s main feeder lines, but it was in a swampy area of its territory.

“We couldn’t get our trucks in there,” says Basha. “They brought the swamp buggy, cut the tree and prevented an outage. Preventing an outage is less expensive than responding to one and it’s no inconvenience to the member.”

The “swamp buggy” is a Prinoth GT3000 track carrier with a digger derrick and bucket. It’s not brought out as frequently as one of the long knuckle boom trucks that can take the New Horizon lineworkers to the tops of transmission poles. But when a problem is hard to get to, it’s usually a part of the solution.

“Whatever the need is, we fill that gap however we can,” says Smith. “We could be out there trying to get the latest and greatest and coolest equipment, but the last thing we want to do is buy some million-dollar piece of equipment and it just sits down here.”

The dozer, diggers and boom trucks aren’t the only cool tools that the Upstate cooperatives share. New Horizon Electric recently purchased two mobile substations. Mobile substations are used to restore power to consumers when equipment is damaged at local substations. When substation maintenance would otherwise interrupt service to members in the area, a mobile substation keeps their power on. The purchase of one mobile substation would cost York Electric more than $1 million. Having access to New Horizon’s mobile substation saves their members money.

“Mobile substations, our vehicles, our facilities—all of that gets shared equally,” explains Smith. “We have an engineering committee that is represented by all five cooperatives that influences the equipment we purchase. Everyone agrees to it and the costs are shared.”

Smith adds that labor costs are billed directly to the cooperatives as New Horizon services are accessed.

“The bottom line is that if it wasn’t cost-effective for us to have New Horizon, we wouldn’t have it,” says Basha. “They’re there because they help us take great care of members. They’re a part of the whole equation that helps us look out for you, keep rates low and the lights on.”

Mobile substation-equipped tractor trailer truck.
New Horizon’s newest mobile substation is ready to go to work for members in the Upstate. Their magnitude—both in size and importance in keeping your lights on—is something to behold. Photo by Bobby Smith

BY JOSH P. CROTZER

Recent News

  • Santee Cooper class action lawsuit settlement funds to be distributed
  • Here comes the sun
  • An added benefit for members: New location for Annual Meeting

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Member Resources

Online Account Access
Update Account Information
Download YEC Mobile App
Frequently Asked Questions
Billing & Payment Options
Residential Rates
View Outage Map
Forms & Downloads
Tips for lowering your electric bill
Safety & Preparedness

About YEC

Your Cooperative
News & Events
Career Opportunities
Community & Education
Service Area
History
Board of Directors
Trees and Rights of Way
How we restore power
Economic Development

Contact Us

Our Locations
Member Feedback
Report Outdoor Light Outage
Report Electricity Theft
Media Contacts
Member Services: (803) 684-4248
Report an Outage: (866) 374-1234
Outage Texting: 352667
Email

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Get YEC's free app at the Google Play site Get YEC's free iOS app at the Apple App Store

© 2023 York Electric Cooperative, Inc. | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | HIPAA | Bylaws | Accessibility Statement | Sitemap

Contact | 1385 Alexander Love Hwy, York, SC 29745 | Main: (803) 684-4248 | Report Outage: (866) 374-1234 or text: 352667 (prior registration required)

Site by Cooperative Inc.

[ Placeholder content for popup link ] WordPress Download Manager - Best Download Management Plugin