Two Ameren representatives recently sat down with Neuhoff Media’s Laura Williams to talk about the power outage challenges from the severe storm that hit on Thursday, June 29th. Director of Ameren East Region Operations Juan Juarez said that one absolute fact is; yes, they use every bit of data they have to figure out what they can do FIRST to bring THE MOST customers back on line with power.
AUDIO: Those fixes, those repairs that can get say 1,000 customers back on, 5,000 customers back on; that’s the focus, right? We can get more folks on with this one repair. And then we head down the path; and the end of the storm is, you know, single outages, a wire down to a single customer at the end of the line…..
Ameren Director of Public Relations Tucker Kennedy says repairing downed poles and lines is not simply “putting something back up that just fell down.” Everything has to be stabilized, as every piece has such a domino effect.
AUDIO: It’s almost like a little mini-construction project that involves a supply chain all the way through to quality control. It’s not just as simple as saying “let’s just put these suckers back up.” It’s a pretty involved process that involves a lot of people, and a lot of complex work.
Juarez says when it comes to “why does my friend have their power back before me,” it’s important to remember that every house can have a different situation.
AUDIO: “My neighbor across the street has power and I do not.” But your customer across the street may be on a completely different circuit. If a tree fell on their service; and pulled down their meter base, their weatherhead; and they have to have some things done on their side before we can reconnect that safely.
To hear Laura Williams’ entire interview with Ameren’s Juan Juarez and Tucker Kennedy, tune in to 1490 WDAN’s Community Connection program; this coming Monday morning, July 10th, at 7:30.
