Do you recall the famous question of whether falling trees make a sound when nobody is around to hear them? I’m confident that falling trees create a lot of noise and a mess, at least when they fall across power lines.
Nobody likes outages. For our members, they’re a disruption that interrupts the comfort you’re accustomed to enjoying. For Kankakee Valley REMC, there’s a lot of unplanned work, and the damage puts a strain on our budget.
The past few months have been tough with many outages affecting our service territory. Nearly all were caused by external factors, including storms with high winds, 90-degree temperatures, a few vehicle crashes involving our poles, and one raccoon making its way into a substation. These causes are all unpredictable and beyond our control.
We heard from some of you on Facebook. While some comments appreciated our response time and communication, others took us to task for not predicting that a specific tree might fall on a particular power line at some point. I understand how frustrating outages can be, especially when they leave you sweating for hours on a steamy summer day.
We take pride in delivering reliable electricity to your home or business. Even though we don’t cause these types of outages, our strong sense of responsibility drives us to restore power as quickly as possible. As much as we wish we could push a button and turn your air conditioning back on, it doesn’t work that way. We must find the source of the problem and fix it. That can take a while in nice weather and far longer during a thunderstorm at night.
Our team pays a lot of attention to trees. Crews regularly inspect and address areas where trees could pose a risk. We also seek the right balance between reliability and respecting the environment. That sometimes means trimming or removing trees, even when our members prefer that we don’t. We do our best to preserve trees whenever possible. We can’t remove all the trees or cut every branch that might fall one day. Instead, we act where there is a clear risk and ensure that every tree we cut or remove is done with care and purpose.
When challenges arise, we use those as opportunities. We look for ways to strengthen our system and improve our communications. We take pride in working for you and providing you with the best service possible. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
