Our city has just experienced a massive power outage cause by a major storm.  Many folks were without power for a week.   Obviously, no electric company can prevent storms and falling trees.  However, there are ways to mitigate the potential damage caused by the forces of nature.  Homeowners should be held responsible for trimming tree limbs that are in contact with electrical wires. This does not happen in our city.  However, now that the crisis is over, Duke has trucks out frantically trimming trees in public and suburban  areas.  Conventional wisdom calls for  locking  the barn before the horse is gone.  But it looks like  Duke Energy didn’t lock the barn in time.

At our house , our electrical  power line radiates from a pole in the yard  of the  next door neighbor.   Those electrical wires are intertwined with the leaves and branches of numerous trees on his property.  Several years ago, I notified the electrical company that this dangerous situation existed.  Weeks later, they sent out a truck to see what I was talking about. The electrician drove into our driveway, stepped out and briefly glanced at the wires in the trees next door, then drove away.  When I called several weeks later to ask what they were planning to do about it,   they rudely replied, “we don’t trim trees and we can’t ask a homeowner to trim his tree.”

 When I called the city engineer, I hit the same brick wall.  He said, ‘the electric company is a private entity, over which the city has no control.”

In the case of our recent power outage, the company spokesperson  explained to our local newspaper that prolonged power outages occurred in suburban neighborhoods away from the main power lines.  Meaning that  homeowners in those leafy neighborhoods had not been advised or  required to trim their trees and bushes resting on power lines,  even though they represented  a disaster waiting to happen..

So what I’m hearing is that no one controls the electric utility company service in our city.  They can do what they please, and get away with it. Which begs the question: Who is responsible for removing trees touching power lines?

According to the National Electrical Safety Code”, it is the responsibility of electric utility companies to trim trees touching power lines. Although, if the tree is on residential property, the homeowner has to assume  the costs of trimming trees around power lines. Electric utility companies should  conduct such maintenance during their yearly rounds (every 6 to 12 months). However, if the tree is touching a power line, the homeowner is responsible for its removal.”

Last week, Duke Energy and the City  both paid the price for neglecting their responsibility of keeping power lines from touching tree limbs. .  Actually, the people who really paid the price were the citizens who threw out rotted food, couldn’t shower or cook , turn on air conditioning or charge their cell phones.

It’s time for Duke Energy to start locking the barn before the horse gets stolen, not after. If they can’t handle that responsibility, the city  needs a contract with a new electric utility company.