GMEC Discusses Power Repairs After Wide Spread Outages

NEW CONCORD, Ohio – Crews have been busy working to restore power to hundreds of customers who lost service this weekend due to high winds.

Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative prepared for the possibility of the outages after they were informed of the severe high winds. Manager of Marketing for Guernsey-Muskingum Electric, Brian Bennett, said they got ready by checking the fuel in the trucks, making sure supplies were full, and if they had enough crews for the weekend. They received up to three thousand without power.

“We’ve seen more over in Guernsey County, at around Salt Fork and Old Washington, and that area. They are very wide spread though, I will say. Typically the ice, and those types of storms, there is sort of an area that we can send all of our crews to. This is very wide and broad. There’s quite a few in Muskingum County as well,” he said.

Bennett expects outages to continue on through Tuesday. He said power outages are mapped out based on phone calls they receive then the computer generates the area and the lines. But the time span to fix the job is not known until the crews are out in the field and scoping the problem.

“A tree has completely brought wires to the ground and broken off three or four poles with it, now we’re talking about an eight, ten, twelve hour job for that crew to get poles and replace them. Where there’s over 100 of these outages at present, and you don’t know until you actually get your eyes in the field to see is it a quick fix or is this a lengthy process,” Bennett explained.

There is about 1,100 meters without power in the Guernsey-Muskingum County Electric Service Territory. Crews will continue into the evening restoring power, but folks should not expect their power to restored tonight.