The winter storm that brought a coating of ice and sub-freezing temperatures to Northern Indiana Friday also brought widespread power outages throughout the county. By Sunday, as many as 5,500 KREMC customers had experienced outages.
This morning, Doris Lemert, KREMC marketing and communications manager, said power had been restored to most of the county. But, with ice still on the power lines and more winter weather forecast for later this week, Lemert said more outages could be on the way.She said most KREMC customers aren't familiar with the process of how outages are dealt with.
That unfamiliarity, she said, can lead to redundant calls, which only slow the response process.
When a customer calls to report a power outage, customer service representatives like Merry Gaerte answer the phone. The representative takes the customer's name and accesses a computer system that gives them information about the problem. Gaerte said typical calls during a storm report tree limbs down and loss of power. She said she tells the customer the problem will be fixed and their power restored as soon as possible.
Gaerte said sometimes the problem isn't one that KREMC can fix. Because KREMC's power comes into the area through Northern Indiana Public Service Co.'s supply lines, she sometimes has to tell customers that the NIPSCO line is out and their power will be restored when NIPSCO can repair the problem.
Gaerty said Thursday was a normal day in her department; they received 139 calls. Friday, when the storm hit, the department fielded about 2,500 calls.
"It was all hands on deck," Lemert said. "This is the biggest outage we've had since 2002."
She said representatives fueled by adrenaline and hot tea worked without breaks from 10 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. answering the phones. She said representatives had to deal with repeat callers who clogged the lines, preventing other callers from reporting new outages.
"People wanted to know how long it would take to get their power back up," Lemert said. "What they didn't know was it actually causes delays for service representatives to go back to the operations department and ask for updates."
After a representative receives a call about a power outage, she or he files a report, which is sent to the operations department. In the operations center, employees like Ryan Miller organize each individual report according to which power sub station or circuit the outage is on. The operations center then assigns each report to a line repair crew. Miller said reports are prioritized according how many customers are affected by a reported outage. For example, an outage due to a sub station losing power is addressed before a downed single-phase line or an individual outage.
Bruce Goslee, engineering and operations manager, said the weight of the ice on the lines and poles throughout the county cause hardware on the poles to break and lines to go down. He also said, when the area receives heavy wind gusts, often lines shake up and down and hit each other. Electric professionals call this "galloping." When the lines gallop, Goslee said, it interrupts the supply of power temporarily and causes problems.
Normally, Goslee said, a repair can be completed in about an hour. "But the ice doubles the time," he said.
During the weekend, repair crews worked around the clock to restore power. Equipment operator and groundsman Nick Iden said he worked about 50 hours between Friday and Sunday, which was typical for all the crews in his department.
Iden said the sub-freezing temperatures make the repair work more challenging.
"You just have to block out the cold," Iden said. "If you can work out in the cold like that, you can work in anything."
Apprentice linemen Zac Lock and Darby Bucher said they receive reports via radio and move from one repair job to the next during major storms like the one this weekend. Emergency crews from Harrison and Orange counties were sent to assist in Kosciusko County.
Monroe Howard is the lead serviceman. Howard said there is a common misconception customers have about individual power supplies to houses.
"A lot of people don't realize that we service our cable to the the house," Howard said. "But, the entry point is the customer's responsibility."
Howard said, in a typical scenario, a branch falls and breaks the apparatus by which a power line connects to a house off the house. He said REMC will roll up the fallen cable, but the customer must hire an electrician to replace the entrance apparatus before REMC can reconnect the power line.
"It would be good if more consumers knew this so they could get an electrician under contract and get service restored sooner," Howard said.
To report a power outage, REMC customers should call 574-267-6331 or 800-790-7362.
