After 900 were without power Monday night after an electrical fire on Richland Avenue, AEP discusses the most common causes of power outages in Ohio and how they are working to prevent them.
Power outages are inconvenient no matter where you live or what season it is.
Whether it is the next snowstorm, thunderstorm or a fallen tree; the Ohio American Electric Power Company is doing whatever it can prevent power outages in Athens.
After more than 900 people were reported to be without power late Monday night because of two downed lines that started a small electrical fire on Richland Avenue, AEP reported it had restored power early the next day.
Vehicle and traffic accidents that involve a driver hitting or damaging an electrical pole are among the leading causes of power outages in the Athens area, AEP spokeswoman Vikki Michalski said.
Robert Rymer, chief of the Athens Fire Department, agreed. The fire department only reports to the scene of an outage if there’s a line down, like it did Monday evening.
“The most common of the power outages we deal with are auto accidents,” Rymer said.
But when an accident causes an entire pole to fall, it could take several hours to replace.
In larger cities like Columbus, however, there are several circuits per street, which can lead to fewer people being without power at a time.
If something were to happen to one line in an area like Columbus, only one or two residents would experience a power outage, Michalski said.
Ohio AEP is in control of 45,637 miles of distribution and transmission lines, Fay White, spokeswoman for AEP, said.
But because of fewer line circuits, those in a more rural area like Athens could experience longer power outages. In the Athens district — which contains Athens, Vinton, Washington, Meigs, Morgan, Muskingum, Hocking, Noble, Fairfield, Gallia, Monroe and Perry counties, there are 6,574 miles of distribution and transmission lines.
Michalski said animals like squirrels and birds coming into contact with power lines is another common cause of local power outages.
In order to cause a power outage, all an animal has to do is place its front paws on the power line and its back paws on the electrical pole, Michalski said.
When that happens, it could take hours for AEP to find the problem and fix it, unless the animal is found quickly upon arriving to the line.
However, power outages caused by things like a blown fuse can happen for no apparent reason, Michalski said.
Those outages take hours to fix because repair crews have to walk the entire line in order to find the blown fuse.
At one point, downed trees were the leading cause of power outages in Ohio, Michalski said, though AEP has worked hard in order to prevent these outages.
In 2009, AEP began its cycle-based tree clearance program, which led to trees and vegetation that were within AEP’s right-of-way to be cleared from power lines by the end of 2013.
Last year, the cycle began again. AEP spent $91 million to clear trees and vegetation in 2014, Michalski said.
“If you live within the 31,000 miles of our lines, you will see us every four years to clear the lines,” Michalski said.
Since the cycle began again in 2014, the company has cleared 10,000 miles and has reduced outages caused by fallen trees by 74 percent statewide, Michalski said.
When asked for specific data about power outages in Athens County, Michalski said it would take a full-time employee a week to collect all the necessary data.
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