The interim report commissioned by Nashville Electric Service (NES) after half its customers lost power during Winter Storm Fern earlier this year was released on Friday, revealing that the company internally acknowledged its previous vegetation management practices contributed to the significant outages.
they have been doing “vegetation management” up here for years and whenever the wind blows the power goes out.. big pine trees usually are the cause. corruption is everywhere.
Even well known tree trimming companies don't necessarily do a good job on power company contracts. One of the big names in the area here (Asplundh) goes around every year or two on a tree trimming mission. There are also crews that mark trees that are in bad enough shape they need to be cut down. Much of the time, those markings (ribbons of tape in various colors) linger for years, fading in the sunlight, without action. And if you tell the power company about bad trees they typically take no action. It seems that the default operating mode is reactive: if a tree falls and takes out a line, then and only then will they do something.
All this is in NH, but I think it's pretty common practice in the industry.
We have Asplundh and another company out of Pennsylvania that do the trimming in my area of Virginia. Theoretically, Virginia law says they can only take trees that have fallen on the lines or are overhanging them. Dead next to a line? Not until it falls on the line. Yeah it's stupid. One of the reasons I support buried lines.
Yes, if the state legislature is that moronic you certainly need buried lines. My understanding is that they are about a wash in life time cost -- much more expensive to build but less expensive to maintain. But if one fails the repair is more expensive. Also, that's what I've seen for lines to the home, or perhaps also for neighborhood lines. Much higher voltage lines as used for long distance distribution are complicated if they need to be buried, though it's certainly possible. Not at all common, though.
Here in NH there is a standard tree trimming protocol which I've seen written up in mailings from the power company. It amounts to, roughly, 6 foot clearance below and to the side, and more (12 perhaps) above, plus also getting rid of anything nearby that's in bad enough shape that it's likely to fall on the wire. So, for example, all the dead ash trees we have around here (d**n emerald borers) tend to be taken down entirely if they are at all close to the wire -- provided the marking crew and the followup cutting crew are on the ball.
There may be an issue with the power company taking out problematic trees that are on private property, off the public R.O.W. Homeowners can be real persnickety about intrusions.
At least around here, the answer is that utilities have easements, which means they have authority to deal with trees as needed no matter where they are.
True enough, Paul. Used to work with the County Engineering Department doing road building and drainage improvements. Authority or not, I can tell you that an angry persnickety citizen can stop all work. Reaching a resolution can take time.
That is not an appropriate use for it. You do not use it to identify trees that need trimming.
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LIDAR uses lasers to plot points, those points are built into a mesh describing a 3D shape. (No, not a 100% accurate description, but close enough for government work.) So far, so good. Not a problem at all.
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The problem arises in how the output/mesh is created. If you let the software do the work, it will likely miss many of the trees that need cutting. How?
LIDAR takes hundreds/thousands of samples of an area. Hand analyzing those samples is extremely time consuming, so most folks let the software do the work. And, because the software is not intelligent, it will ignore samples that are outliers on the bell curve. As an example, a LIDAR survey I know of ignored a flagpole. And that flagpole had dozens of samples on it, but because it was in an otherwise flat field, the software said it was not valid data, and ignored it.
.
Imagine the error rate on sampling trees?
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So, whoever let that contract is either an idiot, or they have a friend in the company.
Interesting. My late uncle worked for the NYC Dept of transportation, working on fixing the streets. He was told to fix a certain street. He checked and found it had been done last year. Mentioned it to his boss. His boss got hysterical and told him to shut up. Somebody got paid off. Of course neither my uncle or his boss were involved. But no surprises in your story.
they have been doing “vegetation management” up here for years and whenever the wind blows the power goes out.. big pine trees usually are the cause. corruption is everywhere.
be prepared. your wellbeing is up to YOU.
And how accurate is the LIDAR in predicting a given tree will fall?
They don't over trim here but at least when the power goes out they have it restored within typically 2 hours. Good electric crews.
They apparently peeled off the magnetic "Joe's Lawn Care" sign before the photo was taken.
Even well known tree trimming companies don't necessarily do a good job on power company contracts. One of the big names in the area here (Asplundh) goes around every year or two on a tree trimming mission. There are also crews that mark trees that are in bad enough shape they need to be cut down. Much of the time, those markings (ribbons of tape in various colors) linger for years, fading in the sunlight, without action. And if you tell the power company about bad trees they typically take no action. It seems that the default operating mode is reactive: if a tree falls and takes out a line, then and only then will they do something.
All this is in NH, but I think it's pretty common practice in the industry.
We have Asplundh and another company out of Pennsylvania that do the trimming in my area of Virginia. Theoretically, Virginia law says they can only take trees that have fallen on the lines or are overhanging them. Dead next to a line? Not until it falls on the line. Yeah it's stupid. One of the reasons I support buried lines.
Yes, if the state legislature is that moronic you certainly need buried lines. My understanding is that they are about a wash in life time cost -- much more expensive to build but less expensive to maintain. But if one fails the repair is more expensive. Also, that's what I've seen for lines to the home, or perhaps also for neighborhood lines. Much higher voltage lines as used for long distance distribution are complicated if they need to be buried, though it's certainly possible. Not at all common, though.
Here in NH there is a standard tree trimming protocol which I've seen written up in mailings from the power company. It amounts to, roughly, 6 foot clearance below and to the side, and more (12 perhaps) above, plus also getting rid of anything nearby that's in bad enough shape that it's likely to fall on the wire. So, for example, all the dead ash trees we have around here (d**n emerald borers) tend to be taken down entirely if they are at all close to the wire -- provided the marking crew and the followup cutting crew are on the ball.
I forgot to add, I get all the free wood chips I want.
There may be an issue with the power company taking out problematic trees that are on private property, off the public R.O.W. Homeowners can be real persnickety about intrusions.
At least around here, the answer is that utilities have easements, which means they have authority to deal with trees as needed no matter where they are.
True enough, Paul. Used to work with the County Engineering Department doing road building and drainage improvements. Authority or not, I can tell you that an angry persnickety citizen can stop all work. Reaching a resolution can take time.
I have a passing familiarity with LIDAR.
That is not an appropriate use for it. You do not use it to identify trees that need trimming.
.
LIDAR uses lasers to plot points, those points are built into a mesh describing a 3D shape. (No, not a 100% accurate description, but close enough for government work.) So far, so good. Not a problem at all.
.
The problem arises in how the output/mesh is created. If you let the software do the work, it will likely miss many of the trees that need cutting. How?
LIDAR takes hundreds/thousands of samples of an area. Hand analyzing those samples is extremely time consuming, so most folks let the software do the work. And, because the software is not intelligent, it will ignore samples that are outliers on the bell curve. As an example, a LIDAR survey I know of ignored a flagpole. And that flagpole had dozens of samples on it, but because it was in an otherwise flat field, the software said it was not valid data, and ignored it.
.
Imagine the error rate on sampling trees?
.
So, whoever let that contract is either an idiot, or they have a friend in the company.
Um, yes?
Interesting. My late uncle worked for the NYC Dept of transportation, working on fixing the streets. He was told to fix a certain street. He checked and found it had been done last year. Mentioned it to his boss. His boss got hysterical and told him to shut up. Somebody got paid off. Of course neither my uncle or his boss were involved. But no surprises in your story.