Trees Falling Is Leading Cause Of Outages
BELCO issued an advisory on tree trimming, reminding everyone that we are now in hurricane season and noting that “trees falling on power lines is the leading cause of power outages in Bermuda, especially during hurricanes.”
“BELCO hires local landscaping companies to ensure trees are cut back near main line circuits along main roads and this proactive approach helps to prevent outages on main line circuits,” a spokesperson said,
Bernews ‘Stay Ready’ storm programme hosted by Glenn Jones last month
“While BELCO is encouraging property owners to keep their trees trimmed, it should be noted that the Company does not offer a tree-trimming service.
“If a property owner has trees growing from their property near power lines they can contact BELCO to make arrangements to have the power lines de-energised in order to safely conduct tree trimming in the vicinity of the lines.
“Property owners or their landscaping service planning to trim trees in close proximity to power lines are asked to call BELCO at 299-2800 or email treetrimming@belco.bm at least three weeks in advance and power will be disconnected to ensure safety. A date and start and finish time will be mutually agreed between the customer and BELCO.”
Shelly Leman, Managing Director of Transmission, Distribution and Retail said: “Trees and foliage falling on power lines are the main cause of power outages during hurricanes. Often when a property owner’s trees cause power lines to fault, it affects not only their own property but those of neighboring properties that are on the same circuit.
“The best way to prevent these outages is to ensure trees are trimmed with a minimum of ten feet of clearance from power lines. With forecasters calling for an active hurricane season, I would urge property owners to ensure their trees are trimmed now to avoid outages should we be impacted by a hurricane this season.”
To schedule a controlled disconnection of power call 299-2800 or e-mail treetrimming@belco.bm.
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Category: All, Environment
An ironic statement considering in the last few weeks outages have been caused by poles or wires being hit by vehicles. No trees involved.
I beg to differ. The leading cause of outages in the last 9 months has been belco/libery leadership of a new state of the art diesel power plan . Still awaiting the blackout report from the RA. Roban said on Dec 20 he requested it as a matter or urgency. It is only August. I guess the direct access to his plp colleague caines keeps it all in check. That’s why the sale was approve was it not. To have everyone’s best interest in hand.