95% of FKEC Consumers Never Lost Power; All Restored by Sunday
Florida Keys Electric Cooperative received 585 calls for service between
Friday and Sunday evenings while the Keys felt the affects of Hurricane
Dennis brushing by Key West. These calls were received and logged by FKEC's
live call center, which was staffed continuously by FKEC volunteers working
12-hour shifts throughout the storm.
These calls reported outages affecting approximately 1,500 consumers from
North Key Largo to Marathon, but 95% of FKEC's members never lost power over
the weekend.
FKEC CEO Tim Planer attributes the low outage rate to the fact that the
system did not experience more than tropical storm force winds and to the
company's tree trimming efforts and recent system improvements.
"FKEC's Right-of-Way Tree Crews have practiced proper pruning techniques and
have done an excellent job keeping our local power lines clear of tree
limbs," Planer said. "In addition, we are constantly upgrading our system
so that fewer consumers are affected by a fallen tree or a blown fuse.
Where once entire neighborhoods or areas would be knocked out together,
outages can now be limited to single streets or even just a few houses."
Tree limbs touching or falling on power lines cause the majority of power
outages during high winds, which is why FKEC encourages home and business
owners to look up before installing landscaping and to keep existing trees
trimmed safely away from overhead lines.
Of the 1,500 members who lost power over the weekend, 900 of them had power
restored by Saturday evening. The remaining 600 were restored by 5 p.m. on
Sunday.
"We appreciate the patience of those members who experienced long outage
times," Planer said. "FKEC prioritized the repair work and organized its
efforts to restore essential services first and to restore the most
consumers in the least amount of time."
FKEC crews began working on repairs as soon as winds dropped below tropical
storm force. Local repair efforts were expedited on Sunday with the
assistance of three crews from Glades Electric Cooperative and one crew from
Glades Utility Services of Moore Haven, Florida. Glades provides electrical
service to Highlands, Glades, Okeechobee and Hendry counties and sent the
crews down to the Keys upon request from FKEC.
After FKEC's member-consumers were restored, Keys Energy Services in Key
West requested assistance from FKEC. One crew left for Key West this
morning and five other crews followed this afternoon. At this time, FKEC
has sent eleven crew members and seven trucks to assist with power
restoration efforts in the Lower Keys. FKEC also released two of its
Asplundh Tree Expert Company contract crews to assist in the repairs.
Traffic lights in Marathon were also affected by the storm, but FKEC hired a
local electrical contractor, Marathon Electric, to repair those lights so
FKEC crews could focus on restoring power to its members.
Planer also noted that FKEC would like to thank the following: Harriett's
Restaurant for welcoming the repair crews from Glades and for kindly picking
up their tab; Craig's Restaurant for staying open late to feed FKEC's call
center staff and line crews all weekend; and FKEC's own Jack Pinder for
preparing meals for our staff.
"I would also like to thank our employees, who are so willing to give their
time and talent to helping our community," Planer said. "We always have a
great crew, but in times of need, their cooperative spirit is especially
evident and appreciated."
