Downed Trees Blamed for Most Outages in October Storm

An investigation by federal regulators and a utility group found that downed trees rather than transmission system outages were largely to blame for widespread power outages during a freak October snowstorm in the Northeast last year.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and North American Electric Reliability Corp.
said on Thursday that 74 transmission lines and 44 transmission substations experienced outages. But those problems caused less than 5 percent of customer outages at the peak of the Oct. 29-30 storm, which left more than 3.2 million homes and businesses without power.

The report says nearly three-quarters of the transmission line outages occurred when trees fell onto power lines, and many of the trees are beyond utility rights-of-way.

The report cites statistics from the state Department of Transportation that estimates that 24,000 trees came down on the state’s roads alone.
 
The report recommends more tree-cutting and increasing the reporting of outages caused by vegetation.

“We were deeply troubled and frustrated by two major power disruptions in as many months, which wreaked havoc on the lives of our constituents, and called on FERC to investigate the reliability of Connecticut’s electric system,” the Congressional delegation representing the state said in a statement released on Thursday. “This important investigation by FERC and NERC has resulted in recommendations that must be taken seriously to ensure Connecticut residents and businesses will not find themselves in a similar situation again. Some of the report confirms what we already knew—such as downed trees were the leading cause of outages—but also makes clear utility companies need to be more vigilant to ensure a debacle like last fall is not repeated.  We urge CL&P and Northeast Utilities to work with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to ensure trees and other vegetation are better maintained to reduce the severity of future power outages.”