“Because affordability is such a concern in eastern Kentucky, this very targeted approach allows us to invest where our customers realize the greatest benefit,” Michele Ross. “We are keenly aware of the concerns our customers have but they also deserve reliable power.”
Michele Ross, Vice President of Operations, Kentucky Power
Kentucky Power is targeting its reliability improvement plan in areas that have seen the most outages and can have the biggest impact for customers.
Across eastern Kentucky crews are focused on vegetation management, equipment upgrades and new technology all designed to reduce outages and shorten restoration times.
“Because affordability is such a concern in eastern Kentucky, this very targeted approach allows us to invest where our customers realize the greatest benefit,” Michele Ross. “We are keenly aware of the concerns our customers have but they also deserve reliable power.”
Crews are completing vegetation work for more than 1,600 miles of power lines, focusing on circuits where tree-related outages have caused the most problems. At the same time, they are upgrading infrastructure on 117 priority circuits, replacing aging poles, crossarms and transformers to strengthen the system and prevent future outages.
In addition, new devices are being installed in more than 800 locations across the service area. These devices reduce the number of customers affected and restore service faster.
“This work is very intentional,” said Michele Ross, vice president of operations for Kentucky Power. “We’re not approaching this broadly — we’re targeting circuits and areas where we know improvements will have the greatest impact for our customers.”
The work is guided by detailed system data, including outage history, equipment condition and circuit performance. Crews are prioritizing areas where customers have experienced repeated or longer-duration outages.
“We’re looking at each part of the system and asking where we can make the biggest difference,” Ross said. “One of those projects is located in Martin County where our crews are working on a new tie line connections that will improve reliability for customers in the Dewey, Inez and Wolf Creek area.
Tie lines create a link between circuits, allowing power to be rerouted when an outage occurs. This means crews can isolate the issue and restore service to many customers more quickly, even before permanent repairs are finished. In a mountainous, heavily wooded area, that added flexibility can significantly reduce outage times and improve reliability.
“This kind of targeted work is happening across communities throughout our service area,” said Ross. “Fewer interruptions, shorter outages and more consistent service, those are the results our customers can expect.”