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5.15.14
4:00 am
Company News
By Sara Sankowich
Trees and power lines enjoy a delicate coexistence along our roads and highways. In regions like New England, where the tree canopy is dense and beau- tiful, trees have the potential to cause outages even in the fairest of weather, be it from a broken limb or a fallen tree. Against these challenges, utilities strive to maintain a balance in right-of-ways, but they must ensure the system can withstand a variety of typical weather events.
Vegetation management (VM) is a critical part of system maintenance for most North American electric utilities because of this coexistence. As the system arborist for a utility in New England, my responsibility is to develop and implement a successful VM program that helps ensure system reliability and mitigates risk. This also includes continuous monitoring and periodic updates and improvements. It is important to always keep sight of your goals, whether they concern reliability, or safety — and adjust your program as needed to meet those goals.
Managing vegetation around utilities lines presents a unique set of challenges, which requires me to work closely with independent vendors providing qualified line-clearance contract crews and other specialized equipment to ensure they are prepared to deal with everyday hazards they encounter in the field. Whether you are a tree company looking to do utility line clearance or pruning, or a utility looking to hire line clearance pruning crews, the following fundamentals are essential to completing utility tree work safely and successfully...
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