2 minute read
OEC Provides Most Reliable Power in Central Oklahoma
By Brianna Wall | Editor & Creative Director
OEC is our name. Reliability is our game.
As an OEC member, you already have a leg up over your investor-owned utility neighbors. How? Recent data shows investor-owned utility customers were without power 53 percent longer than OEC members in 2017. Reliability matters, and no one in central Oklahoma is doing it better than OEC.
"In 2016, our members experienced an average outage time of 91 minutes for the entire year," said CEO Patrick Grace. "That number dropped to 84 in 2017, meaning — across the board — our members were without power for an average of 84 minutes over the duration of 2017, which is pretty remarkable."
OEC's score of 84 places us well below the average score of 126 among electric co-ops across the nation and takes into consideration the outage time due to our generation and transmission provider, Western Farmers Electric Cooperative. If we were to only look at the outage factors we can control, that number drops to 56.8.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission reported investor-owned utility scores ranging from 116 to 144 in 2017 — 53 percent higher than OEC's score.
If you're keeping record at home, the lower the score the better. After all, the goal is to keep the lights on.
LIGHTNING'S SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN RELIABILITY
Oklahoma is the second most lightning prone state behind Florida and it showed in our electrical system prior to 2017. This helped OEC's board of trustees create a 2017 strategic initiative to address and eradicate issues caused by lightning.
"I believe our system hardening initiative continues to have a major impact on these scores," said Nick Shumaker, manager of system engineering. "We emphasized the much needed upgrading of our lightning protection equipment, which has played a large role in reducing outage time." [2711329301]
Proof that this focused effort is paying off can be found by looking at lightning strike data.
"In 2016, 30 percent of our outages were caused by the 29,370 lightning strikes that occurred throughout our service area," said Shumaker.
Strides will continue to be made in the upgrading of lightning protection equipment until all feeders on all substations are operating at a satisfactory level.
OTHER EFFORTS BEING MADE TO PROVIDE RELIABLE ELECTRICITY
Vegetation management plays a large role in providing safe, reliable electricity. Co-ops and electric companies in general sometimes get a bad rap for the role we play in the removal of trees, but our efforts help our system withstand Oklahoma's unpredictable weather. We're a fan of trees at OEC, just not intermingled with our electric lines. In fact, we encourage the safe planting of trees in a mindful location in conjunction with our infrastructure. See page 5 for how you can claim a free tree from OEC in April!
All of our efforts culminate with one mission: to improve your quality of life with the safe delivery of highly reliable, reasonably priced electric service, innovative energy programs and exceptional member service.
