December 11, 1977

Thousands again hit by outages

      For the third time in six days the lights went out in Johnson County-along with most of the heat. Thousands of Johnson County residents were without electricity for at least a short time Sunday, with most not lasting more than an hour, according to utilities sources. But more than 2,000 consumers most in White River and Franklin Townships were without power for longer periods of 8 to 12 hours. The initial outage occurred at 4:30 a.m. Sunday when power provided by Public Service Indiana went out. The Public Service outage reportedly affected lines for Johnson County REMC, which then encountered problems of their own when they attempted to restore power to the areas, according to Johnson County REMC official Dan Jackson. REMC purchases power from Public Service for transmission in REMC power lines. Sources gave conflicting opinions as to the cause of the early morning outage. Anthony Galofaro, area superintendent for Public Service Indiana, said the problems began when a car struck a utility pole near the intersection of Smith Valley and Peterman Roads.

         Galofaro said the accident started a chain reaction, hindered by the strain on the lines caused by the icy weather conditions. He said a transmission line burned down when the car hit the electric pole and that most of the major PSI substations went down. “One thing led to another,” Galofaro said and many wires began to burn through. The company also lost several pieces of equipment in their substations, he said. He said the severe cold weather conditions cause a greater strain on electrical wires and that more problems occurred as the crews began hooking on the consumers. Another problem, he said, was caused by ice-laden trees and branches touching electrical lines. Contrary to Galofaro’s opinion, White River Township rescue workers said the accident at Smith Valley and Peterman Roads at 4:30 a.m. was caused by-and not the cause of-the outages. Firefighter Dave Fishel said the driver of the auto involved in the accident told the firemen he had struck the utility pole when he attempted to stop to avoid hitting “hot” wires which had fallen onto the roadway. An undetermined number of Greenwood customers also lost electrical power during the day. Jackson said 1,000 consumers of REMC were without power for approximately 12 hours. “Considerably more” were without power for at least a short time, he said. Jackson said problems for REMC began when the PSI substations and transmission lines went out. “When their lines go, we’re out,” Jackson explained. He said further outages occurred when REMC attempted to pick up the affected customers.

         He noted that picking up the outages causes great strain on electrical lines, because of the increased demand needed to start up a “cold load.” He said the extreme cold was a major factor in the outages because the brittle lines break more easily. During the outage, REMC lost service in two substations and two metering points. He said most of the REMC losses were in White River and Franklin Townships. Power to all customers was restored by about 4:30 p.m. Jackson said. Both PSI and REMC fielded all available crews to replace and repair transmission lines. REMC also called in an independent tree trimming company. The power company officials praised their workers, who labored as many as 15 hours Sunday repairing the damage. They said icy road conditions caused the repair work to take more time since it took crewman longer to reach affected lines, many of which were located on isolated rural roads. Jackson said all Public Service personnel were called in to man telephones and conduct the repair work. Neither Jackson nor Galofaro could suggest remedies for preventing future outages. Galofaro noted that 90 percent of all power outages are caused by auto accidents or tree conditions. He said PSI tries to maintain a cycle on tree trimming, but noted that many private property owners will not allow their trees to be trimmed. The outages Sunday caused power outages at the Greenwood and New Whiteland police departments. New Whiteland was able to restore power with an emergency generator. The Greenwood police dispatcher used the Operation Life radio for dispatching police. A dispatcher from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department noted that customers without power should not call police agencies. They asked that persons with power outages refrain from tying up police phones unless there is an actual emergency. White River Township volunteer firefighters aided in traffic control throughout Sunday morning at Smith Valley and Peterman Roads. Customers in Greenwood, White River Township, Franklin Township and Whiteland suffered power outages Sunday. Galofaro said 850 PSI customers in the county were without power from 8 to 10 hours. He said most county PSI users suffered at least a temporary outage when the substations went down.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)

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