Home » News Center » Publications » Feature Articles

Bogged down and broken - Cooperatives hit by spring storm

Thousands of rural electric members were left without power April 2 when a spring thundersnow storm pummeled much of western and central North Dakota and northwest South Dakota.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative - April 8, 2010

A higher version of Adobe Flash Player is required to view this content. Download the Flash Player.

Accumulations of up to a foot of sloppy, slushy snow were reported. For Basin Electric and its co-op members, nearly 12,000 distribution poles were knocked out and more than 250 transmission towers were affected.

Eight Basin Electric co-op members were affected by the storm – six in North Dakota and two in South Dakota. Darren Stastny, Basin Electric supervisor of Security and Response Services, said dispatch received more than 21,000 calls from member co-op consumers from 12 a.m. on April 2 through 9 a.m. April 5. “We received nearly 14,000 calls on Friday alone,” Stastny said.

Mor-Gran-Sou Electric Cooperative was hit the hardest. About 1,800 of their 5,300 members lost power. On Monday, the cooperative reported an estimated 10,000 poles were down. That’s about 520 miles of line. “Virtually 100 percent of the east/west power lines are down on the ground in Morton County; about 85 percent east/west are down in Grand County; and Sioux County has about 10 percent east/west power lines down,” was reported on the cooperative’s Facebook page. View a map of the damage in Mor-Gran-Sou Electric’s service area.

Find them on Facebook

Mor-Gran-Sou Electric has been keeping members updated on a Facebook page. Their status is updated several times a day.

http://www.facebook.com/morgransouelectric

“It just literally tore everything down that runs east and west. … We had cases where the poles snapped and flew across roads,” said Don Franklund, Mor-Gran-Sou Electric co-manager. The cooperative is reporting co-op members affected by the outage may be without power for a number of weeks, possibly longer.

Capital Electric Cooperative estimated about 3,700 of its 15,000 members lost power after more than 400 distribution poles snapped. “You know, I’ve been doing this for more than 30 years, and this is the first year that I can remember that in seven hours we had this much damage and the next day you could work in your regular shirt,” said Leslie Vietz, Capital Electric crew foreman.

Brad Quenette, Roughrider Electric Cooperative member service coordinator, said the cooperative had about 535 distribution poles on the ground with hundreds of wire breaks and wire lying on the ground. About 200 members remained without power on Wednesday. “We are hoping to have power restored to all members by Friday night,” he said.

Damage by the numbers

Mor-Gran-Sou Electric:
10,000 poles broken
520 miles of line down
1,800 members without power
Capital Electric:
400 poles broken
3,700 members without power
Roughrider Electric:
535 poles broken
200 members without power
Verendrye Electric:
100 poles broken
McLean Electric:
100 poles broken
Moreau-Grand Electric:
800 poles broken

Verendrye Electric Cooperative and McLean Electric Cooperative each lost at least 100 poles during the storm. Slope Electric Cooperative also sustained some damage.

In South Dakota, Grand Electric Cooperative reported they had several broken poles and cross arms in the Lemmon and Meadow areas. And Moreau-Grand Electric Cooperative had about 800 broken poles.

Two of Basin Electric’s transmission lines were also affected. Bryan Keller, Basin Electric manager of transmission system maintenance, reported the AVS-to-Broadland line tripped out on Friday morning and was re-energized Friday afternoon as the weather improved. After further inspection some minor damage was discovered and temporary repairs were completed during a scheduled outage Saturday evening. In addition, a total of 20 static peaks were damaged on the LOS-to-Groton line. However, crews were able to return the line to service Saturday afternoon.

After restoring Basin Electric’s lines, the transmission crews have been assisting with the member’s restoration efforts. In addition, more than 300 operations personnel from across the Midwest are working to get power restored to residents as quickly as possible. A number of those crews arrived before the Easter holiday, working through the weekend.

“It’s pretty nice to see all the help. [We felt] pretty helpless until the trucks start rolling in from other co-ops. … They’ve been nice enough to give up their Easter vacation to come help out,” said Jeff Holzer, Capital Electric lineman.

Western Area Power Administration reported about 66 towers on their 230-kilovolt transmission line north along Interstate 94 were damaged or totally destroyed. “Some of those transmission towers were bent so far they appear as if they’re bowing,” said Daryl Hill, Basin Electric media relations supervisor.

Top of page