For immediate release

Jan. 31, 2009 — 2 p.m.

Substations brought back on line in electric co-op restoration effort

View the latest information about Missouri co-op systems affected by winter storms.

A sense of optimism that they have turned the corner on power restoration in Missouri’s Bootheel is coming from those involved in the all-out restoration effort today. John Farris, manager of transmission cooperative M&A Electric Power Cooperative, says crews working on southeast Missouri transmission lines are turning dozens of substations back on in the first crucial step toward returning things to normal.

“Things are coming together,” Farris said. “We have been able to look at every piece of line and have determined what will be required to get it back up. The good news is, we are getting transmission lines and substations back up.”

This step is critical to the restoration effort, because each substation feeds power to many consumers whose homes were plunged into darkness in the wake of the Jan. 27-28 ice storm.

M&A, based in Poplar Bluff, is a transmission cooperative that supplies power to four distribution cooperatives in southeast Missouri. Transmission lines owned by M&A toppled under the heavy weight of ice, which reached 3 to 4 inches in diameter.

On Friday, Farris met with U.S. Rep. JoAnn Emerson, who was in southeast Missouri to assess the damage and to make sure communities receive the federal assistance they need. He brought along a chunk of ice taken from a fallen transmission line. Based on that chunk, he estimates each pole and crossarm that broke was carrying 10,000 pounds of ice.

M&A lost nearly 2,000 power poles – including large transmission tower structures – in the storm.

By Friday, M&A, along with workers from transmission cooperatives from all parts of the state, energized 12 substations that serve members of Ozark Border Electric Cooperative, Poplar Bluff. That allowed power to flow to approximately 20,000 members. On Friday, three more substations were energized, leaving only one in the Malden area off line. Ozark Border had about 6,000 members without power Saturday morning.

At SEMO Electric Cooperative based in Sikeston, another six substations are expected to come on line today or Sunday. SEMO has approximately 8,000 members still without power. M&A crews are focusing on the Dogwood-Minor area where the bulk of SEMO’s outages occurred. They also hope to see transmission service complete to the Charleston-East Prairie area this weekend. However, much work remains to be done to the distribution lines that carry electricity from the substations to the homes.

The hardest hit area remains the two Bootheel counties served by Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative, Hayti. Manager Charlie Crawford estimates that 90 percent of the cooperative’s lines were downed in the wake of the storm. Even the cooperative’s office was without power. The bulk of the cooperative’s 8,000 members remain without power.

Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative reports between 3,000 and 5,000 poles broken or toppled within its system that normally has 1,400 miles of energized line.

Pemiscot-Dunklin’s service area is the scene of a massive influx of manpower and equipment in an all-out effort to rebuild the devastated lines. Efforts this week have focused on safety concerns, especially getting fallen lines and poles out of roads and driveways.

The swampy terrain of the Bootheel is complicating restoration efforts. Trucks must be dragged through the mud every inch of the way, and in many cases crews are working in knee deep ice water. Helpful farmers in the area are using their massive four-wheel-drive tractors to assist repair crews.

Progress is also being made in the south-central Ozarks where Howell-Oregon Electric, West Plains, and White River Valley Electric, Branson, were hard hit. Howell-Oregon reports 4,000 members remain without power while White River is down to 1,800.

In all, 26,300 electric cooperative members in Missouri remain without power. That number is down from the 40,000 reported on Friday morning, Jan. 30.

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Editor's Note: For media inquiries, contact Jim McCarty at 573-680-2451