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Power Outages Bring Good Response
After four power outages this month ? three blacking out large areas ? Dominion Virginia Power (DVP) assured town and county officials last week that it was accelerating construction of the new main transmission line to prevent a repeat of the blackouts.
DVP’s main transmission line provides a main source of electricity to customers served by Dominion, Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) and Town of Culpeper Light and Power users. When the main transmission line failed, all customers, regardless of provider and whether they lived in the town or county served by that line, lost power.
The DVP officials explained to the town and county representatives what caused the outages:
June 4- Extremely high winds tossed a metal barn roof across the transmission line.
June 7- The temporary power line constructed to serve customers while the new line is under construction sagged due to extreme heat and heavy usage and made contact with a tree limb.
June 10- Crews could not determine the cause of the failure but did note some damage to the line.
June 16- A distribution capacitor failed, causing a minor outage to some Dominion Virginia Power customers and a few town electric users.
Alexander Smith, senior external affairs manager for Dominion Virginia Power, noted that three of the four problems stemmed from issues with the temporary line, which is located beside the new line, but at a height several feet lower.
With increasing demand in the area, DVP decided in 2006 to upgrade the transmission line from Stevensburg to Culpeper. The current line couldn’t meet load projections due to growth and the arrival of Terremark. The project was scheduled to be completed by December 2008.
The upgrade involves erecting taller poles that will accommodate a double circuit line that will connect with a newly-constructed Rappahannock substation along McDevitt Drive. From there, the electricity is distributed to DVP, REC and town customers. DVP has stepped up its construction schedule, pushing up the completion date from December to September.
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