Dawson Power, NRECA and our future leaders...

Each year, Dawson Public Power District sponsors several teens so they can attend Youth Energy Camp, held in Halsey (NE) in July. Teenagers from all over Nebraska attend the camp. Two of these teens are selected to serve as an ambassador for Nebraska and they head to Washington D.C. (all expenses paid) in June of the following year. In addition, Dawson Power sends one of our own teen representatives to Washington D.C. We think investing in our future leaders will pay off because these teens are educated about rural utility systems and what affects our consumers, including legislation, and safety.



If you know of a teenager (freshman through junior) who might be interested in going to camp, please let us know. This teen must reside in a home currently served by Dawson Public Power District.

Do You Have A Plan?

I’m trying to write my regular blog for Dawson Power. I had two topics in mind but my focus is gone and the material unimportant in the scope of what’s happened in Haiti.

Ongoing reports from Haiti stream across my RSS feeds and prayer requests push through Facebook, Twitter and forwarded emails. Reports on the radio are spotty but enough to tell us its real bad. I kept wondering about my own family if something like this happened.

Do you have a family plan if a disaster strikes? Have you laid out instructions for where to meet, who to call, what personal effects are critical? I know this has nothing to do with electricity or customer service but I’m a family member first and an employee second.

My family is strung across the U.S. Whether it’s an earthquake, a tornado, a terrorist attack; a plan of some kind needs to be drafted so we know we are all safe --- or what action must be taken to ensure our well being as a family.

Start with simple preparation. Put together a family list of cell phone numbers and email addresses. Some disasters will mean cell phone and internet service are non-existent – so then what? Make sure you put emergency contact information that includes addresses, land line phones, work place address and phone numbers, even the local Red Cross or church. Include these for each family member. In an emergency, most of us won’t be able to instantly recall phone numbers of family members – and our own cell phone where this is stored may be missing.

If all typical communication is impossible, a local ham radio operator is an amazing resource. Do you know who that is in your area? In my case it’s the Midway Amateur Radio Club in central Nebraska or ARAN (Amateur Radio Association of Nebraska). Ham radio activity is being picked up from Haiti already.

Keep a dry (sealable) storage container with batteries, flashlights, portable radio, potable water, high protein food that can’t spoil. In that dry storage container, put your plan with all your contact information. Include any medical history with prescription requirements. Hopefully, you will NEVER need this container.

If you plan to help Haiti victims financially – make sure you do so through a reputable organization.

Don't use the disaster as the drill.

Help Keep Your Electric Rates LOW!!!

It may seem boring to most people, but what Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) of North Dakota is doing is a critical move to help us keep electric rates low!  Let your elected representative know you do not want EPA to regulate CO2 emissions....

http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_video.asp?news=36892

You can go to http://www.ourenergy.coop/ and contact your representative in just two clicks.  Look for the link on the left side that says "Contact Elected Officials" click on that, then type in a short note that says "Don't let EPA regulate CO2!"

Don't hesitate...don't wait!

Who Gets Power First?

“Dawson Power, can I help you?”
“My power’s out.”
“Do you have an account or meter number?”
“No not with me.”
“That’s ok, what’s your name and address, we’ll look it up that way.”
(Info given)

“Yes you are in the area affected by an outage that our crews are already working on.”
“Well, when will the power be back on?”

“I’m afraid we don’t know.”
“Well, can you guess?”

“No, all I can tell you is that our crews are working in that area.”
“What about my stuff in the fridge, or my pipes? What about watering my cows?”

Almost without exception, our outage calls take the same direction. There are a dozen things that affect when power will be restored. It starts with how extensive the outage is followed by weather conditions and somewhere in the middle, the linemen deal with road conditions, zero visibility, darkness, equipment failure, and access to power lines in general. It’s pretty easy to spot a line that’s down but try looking for a crack in an insulator from 30 feet below. Then add causes such as trees, animals, and accidents. Sometimes it seems it’s like finding that proverbial needle in a haystack.

Safety is our top priority during emergency service restoration situations and it should be your top priority, as well.

Dawson Public Power District has about 51 distribution substations, each serving hundreds of meters over 5,200+ miles of distribution line. When a major outage occurs, the substations are checked first. A problem here could be caused by failure in the transmission system supplying the substation. If the problem can be corrected at the substation level, power may be restored to a large number of people.

If the sub checks out ok, the linemen focus on the distribution lines coming out of the substation. Sometimes that’s where the problem is and service can be restored to a number of customers on one or more circuits.

We don’t know who exactly is out of service until you call us. We have a great mapping system but it’s not tied to our electric grid (yet). It tells us where our lines and meters are, but we need you to call us if you are out of power. We need current phone contact information too.

Outage updates can be found on our Facebook and Twitter accounts. When you request to be a friend on our Facebook account, rest assured your privacy is protected so that none of our other friends see your personal posts or pictures. We “hide” your posts and the only time you show up is when you make a comment on something we’ve posted.  Share our information with your family, friends and neighbors during outages. 

Call us any time.

FOR THE SAKE OF POWER

Linemen are a different creature. They have this pride in their work that is not always seen in other careers. They take outages personally and do everything they can to restore service to customers, many whom they know by first name. I, for one, don’t envy their duties and truly enjoy the job I have from the warm confines of my office.

The ice storms in late 2006 and early 2007 were an eye opener for me. Not just because I’d never been directly involved in service restoration of this magnitude but because I saw a side of our employees that existed but had been hidden. It is called RESOLVE.

While I have worked in the electric industry for over 30 years, I do not know how linemen find problems in the cold and dark much less when visibility is zero, winds are high, and wind chill is -5 degrees or worse. Each time I hear a lineman on the radio telling our operations secretary that a circuit should be back on; I imagine the relief felt by our customers. As a Dawson Power customer myself, I know the feeling. Being without electricity, even for a few minutes seems almost intolerable.

Still, things happen that are not in anyone’s control. Take a look at these pictures (thank you Norris PPD) and see what linemen in the Beatrice area had to face over Christmas. Dawson Power linemen have faced the same thing. They can’t restore power if they can’t see the lines or get to them. Linemen sometime protest when they are told to stop working (because conditions have made it unsafe) but they also know that they are working with something that could kill them if they make one small mistake.

In an era when electronic communication is at an all time high, we think it’s pretty special when we receive a card in the mail that says “Thanks for getting my power back on!” A little appreciation goes a long way….and kicks RESOLVE into higher gear for next time.

These are examples of the extreme conditions linemen must work in.  God bless these men (and women) who keep the lights on (or get them back on) for all of us!
 
Gwen Kautz