Consumer Services Supervisor Rhonda Kennedy helps Faye Shelton spread

out a sumptuous feast for crews in the Livingston District office last week.

It’s a safe bet to say that no lineman in Livingston will climb a pole during a major outage with an empty stomach as long as Faye Shelton is around. Mrs. Shelton and her husband couldn’t stop thinking of crews working around the clock during the recent winter crisis, so they decided to do something to warm tummies and hearts during the storm. The couple braved the cold to bring Country Ham, sausage, and biscuits for the early crews – sandwiches, chips, and snacks for the late crews.  They didn’t stop there.

Once the outage was behind us and every light was on, the Sheltons took up a collection at Sunday School to buy the ingredients for a home-cooked meal for the Livingston District last week. They felt that after all that stress of grabbing food to run out the door, that the guys and gals needed to sit down, relax and enjoy a real lunch complete with laughter and fellowship. There was some talk of the storm, but mostly the conversation centered around the delicious specialties that Mrs. Shelton cooked up with love – and from scratch – in her kitchen. Mr. and Mrs. Shelton, your thoughtfulness has made all the difference. Thank you for your kindness!

     On Sunday evening, every electric distribution company’s (and every line worker’s) worst nightmare began to unfold before our eyes, with significant ice accumulation building on UCEMC’s nearly 5,000 miles of line and other equipment.  Ice is far more dreaded than snow because of its weight. Ice doesn’t “shed” itself off our equipment like snow does until it eventually thaws. This unusual ice storm had a disastrous effect on our system because the ice accumulations we received exceeded our design standard set by the Rural Utilities Services and the National Electrical Safety Code. 

      The ice indeed had its way when it came to our equipment. Poles, wires, and cross arms standards are designed to withstand medium load ratings for up to ¼ inch of ice.  The extreme weather event that moved into our area on Monday layered on 1 ½ to 2 inches of freezing rain, ice, and snow, late Wednesday and Thursday resulting in more ice and another 4-6 inches of snow with five straight days of freezing temperatures. Cross arms, poles, and lines had far more stress on them than they were designed to withhold, causing them to weaken or break. As if that’s not enough trouble, trees and limbs began to fall on already weakened lines and lay them to the ground causing electrical faults. Even on well-maintained ROW, trees outside the 40-foot Right-of-Way clearance area uprooted and collapsed our infrastructure. 

     But, now, we are experiencing a thaw across the region that offers some relief. Repairs made now are more sustainable because a load of ice and snow on them is gone or lessening. Unfortunately, we can probably expect a few more days of tree limbs breaking and falling. The thaw will also produce wet soil, further weakening some tree’s roots, causing them to fall. But now, the news we’ve all been waiting for:  more often than not, repairs made to the main lines will stick, and we will be able to restore other members served by feeder lines from there. If you are still experiencing an outage and you can see that all of your neighbors are on, please go to the REPORT OUTAGE tab, click on your district office, fill out the brief form, and send it in. It’s important that we know about every outage and what the problems might be at your home.

Here is an additional explanation of how the process works from Upper Cumberland Business Journal and our colleague Carl Haney of Cookeville Electric.

Electric power comes in from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on large high-voltage (161Kv) transmission lines. For perspective, one Kv is 1,000 volts, so 161 KV is 161,000 volts of power. The power goes to one of six substations where transformers break down the power from 161 Kv to 13 Kv. This can be done with one transformer, but each substation has two transformers to provide redundancy if one is damaged or becomes inoperable.

Imagine a substation is like your house. Power comes into the substation and is broken up to serve smaller areas, and each has a breaker, just like your house and its breaker box. Typically, there are six breakers in each substation, serving 500-2,000 customers each, and designed to protect the overall system when something happens to one part of it. If a tree falls on one distribution line, the breaker for that section will flip, and the other town sections will not be affected.

Power leaves the substations on 3-Phase distribution lines. In Cookeville, these are primary lines that serve those 500-2,000 customers across small portions of the city.  The lines each carry 13 Kv of power. 

A transformer at each residence reduced the power from 13,000 volts down to 240 volts (two 120-volt lines) that feed the service on your house, providing its power.  

Why does it take so much longer to repair a 3-Phase line than a line to your house?

If a tree falls on one of the 3-Phase lines, it is typically a larger pole and creates greater damage.

If a tree falls on a line to your house, it’s typically going to break that line to the pole, or it’s going to rip the service off the house so that it can cause damage to your house. We can go out when you get your service up and just put that one line up. When the 3-Phase lines fall, they can break poles; they can tear up transformers and break cross arms. There’s just more equipment there for the potential for them to break when they do get torn down, and there’s a large number of customers that it affects.

Why was this storm so much worse?

The extreme cold and the ice made this the perfect storm.

Ice to us in the electric industry is a lot worse than snow. It stays on the trees. It stays on the lines – obviously, the ice does. It’s a lot heavier than snow. A quarter-inch of ice can cause damage. A quarter-inch of snow, and we don’t even know it’s there. On top of that, you started adding freezing rain that keeps accumulating on those lines.  Cookeville was right on the edge of a line during the storm. The southeast side was more rain, and the northwest side of that line was freezing rain. 

The majority of our damage was to the north and west of the city shared Haney. First, we had rain, and it began freezing. The rain and freezing rain continued to fall. So, when they would get one section clear and power restored, they would move to another section. 

Almost immediately, ice would begin to accumulate on the just restored section, and it would go back out. There were sections of the city that had to get repaired multiple times throughout the storm.

The multiple waves of this storm have made the biggest impact in damage. The continual fall of freezing rain, and even the regular rain that fell Wednesday night, froze upon hitting the ice that was already hanging on power lines and tree limbs, stressing them to the point of breaking.

This winter storm system is unlike anything we’ve seen in a generation. We are battling Mother Nature to restore your power.

We understand the frustration that comes along with extended periods of no electricity. Our friends and family rely on us to restore power, and we take pride in delivering the best service.

But, winter storms can be unrelenting and continually “undo” repairs until the weather breaks. That doesn’t stop us from making repairs in the harsh conditions until they stick. We appreciate the kindness members have shown our UCEMC employees, expressing appreciation and bringing food and coffee.

At UCEMC, we feel that “knowledge is power.” As we work to get the electricity flowing to your home, we want to empower you with updates, news, and information during this crisis. Many of you have questions about how we restore power. Here are some that we see the most:

Your Frequently Asked Questions:

Q:   I don’t see a UCEMC truck in my area. Are they working on getting the lights on in my neighborhood?

Even though you can’t see a utility truck working nearby, rest assured that UCEMC crews are working to get your lights back on. In the graphic above, you can see that we begin closest to the main lines near the substations and work our way out until we find the problem. Sometimes you can’t see the problem area that is causing your outage. It may be a significant distance away on a main line and need to be fixed before we can restore your power.

Q: My neighbor across the street has power, but I don’t. What’s going on?

You may notice that someone nearby has power back on before you do, such as one side of the street versus the other side. That’s probably because different power lines serve the two areas. It could also be a component on your house or meter pole is damaged. If you know that power is restored to your area and you see no damage to the service connection at your home, but you’re still in the dark call 1-800-261-2940 or visit the UCEMC website to report your outage. If you see damage to your service connection such as your meter being torn off the house by a limb, you’ll need to get a licensed electrician out to fix your equipment before your power can be restored.

Q:  I’ve reported my outage at least three times. How do I know that I’m being heard?

We thank you for reporting your outage by calling 1-800-261-2940 or visiting ucemc.com. Once you’ve done that, your outage is reported. Reporting an outage on the website is simple and easy when the call system is overwhelmed, as it is during this winter weather crisis. Call centers are not staffed to take 10,000 plus calls. We need to know about each and every outage.

Q: I see in your updates that power in many homes is on, but still, mine has been out for more than 24 hours. Why can’t you tell me when my power will be restored?

     With an ongoing winter storm and widespread outages, time estimations for repair are impossible. Until the weather clears, new issues continue to develop across the system, despite UCEMC’s best efforts. In worst case winter storms like we are experiencing now, sometimes the same repairs have to be made over and over until the weather clears. 

Q: How do you decide what to work on first?

In order of restoration, crews are dispatched first to deal with public safety threats, such as wires down that block roads or streets, traffic lights, etc. They also have to conduct damage assessments to assess where and what supplies are needed to make repairs. Our Right of Way (tree crews) must often be called in to clear fallen trees and limbs from roads before fixing the problem. We start repairs with the main lines, feeding from our power delivery points (or substations). Sometimes those repairs are extensive, and with ongoing winter storms, sometimes repairs have to be made over and over until the weather clears. Then, it takes additional time to repair neighborhood and individual lines once the main lines are repaired.

Q: My power was on yesterday for a few hours and then went off again. Sometimes, my lights are blinking off and on. Why is this happening?

Unfortunately, until the weather forecast changes in our favor with warmer temperatures, this may continue to happen during this winter weather crisis.  Our crews are making great strides, getting large numbers of members back online each day. More trees are breaking during the freezing nights, and limbs are snapping and falling on the lines. Sometimes the limbs make the lights blink, while heavier limbs and trees take out the wires – and your power.

We’re here to answer your many questions and help in any way we can. Please continue to visit ucemc.com and our Facebook page for information as this winter weather crisis continues.

One description is that it looked like a war zone in some Upper Cumberland areas last week. Once the snow and ice melted, those of us who aren’t lineworkers ventured out of our homes and looked around. If you live in town, you might not have seen that much damage from the storm at first glance. But other areas told a different story. Bowing street lights, hundreds of limbs littering the ground like matchsticks, some of them blocking utility access roads. Snapped power poles were abundant in some places.

Equipment on the ground in the 2021 Ice & Snow Storm

Bartlett Pear Down in 2021 Ice Snow Storm UCEMC

This is what UCEMC lineworkers faced as they continued to restore power to the remaining members who were without power last week.  Right of Way crews stayed far ahead of lineworkers to clear the path of hundreds of trees that snapped in the cold. Poles with transformers and lines still attached fell, street lights laid on the ground. This winter weather system packed all the punch of a hurricane without the water. Heavy ice and snow left behind damage similar to a tornado, except that damage was more widespread.  

This pole snapped like a twig in the 2021 Ice & Snow Storm.

UCEMC Crew in Dodsons Branch in the 2021 Ice & Snow Storm

Crews from Tri-County Electric Membership Corporation, Ft. Loudoun Electric Cooperative, Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation, and Appalachian Electric Cooperative assisted the UCEMC crews restoration effort, which narrowed down to the scattered, more isolated areas later in the week. In the Livingston District, power restoration was hampered by the sheer number of fallen trees over power lines in more rural areas., blocking access roads, impeding pole installation, and line replacement. Diggers, bucket trucks, and crews faced more rugged terrain and extensive damage as restoration work reached into the scattered outages along hills and remote, unpaved roads. 

REPORT OUTAGES on the home page by clicking on the District Office tab and details about your district. 

Weathering This Winter Storm Safely

Upper Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation takes pride in providing reliable power to all homes and businesses within our service area. Still, during this historic winter storm with predicted ice accumulation of three-quarters inch, widespread outages can occur that provide restoration challenges for our crews. The heavy ice and snow have caused trees and limbs to fall on lines, knocking energized lines to the ground. Bulldozers, diggers, saws, and bucket trucks must navigate through dozens of these large downed trees to get to damaged electrical equipment.

Should trees and limbs fall near your home, UCEMC reminds you to stay clear of downed power lines or equipment and never assume they are safe to approach. Call us to report.  You should only call 911 if you have a life-threatening emergency.

Preparing for an outage:

• Develop an emergency plan and share it with your family. Be sure everyone knows what to expect and what to do. Have a plan in case power is out for a more extended period.
• Make a list of local emergency contact numbers (fire, police, ambulance, etc.). Include UCEMC’s number – 1-800-261-2940.
• Prepare an emergency kit and store it in an easy-to-find location. Check it regularly to make sure it is well stocked and that all equipment is in good working order.
• Include a battery-operated flashlight in your emergency kit to avoid using candles, as they can be fire hazards.

Your Emergency Kit:

Prepare for the first 72 hours. Stock your emergency kit with these essentials:

• Flashlights and batteries
• Battery operated radio and clock.
• Cell phone and external power bank
• Candles and waterproof matches or a lighter
• Blankets, coats, hats, and gloves
• Plastic garbage bags
• First aid kit
• Non-perishable food such as canned and dried goods
• Bottled water
• Manual can opener
• Prescription drugs, contact lens solution.
• Extra cash
• Spare car keys
• Sleeping bags
• Toilet paper, other personal toiletries
• A loud whistle in case you need to attract attention

What should I know about portable and standby generators?

We are all very dependent on electricity. In some circumstances, it makes sense to consider a portable or standby generator. Before buying a generator, it’s important to do some homework to do it right and stay safe.

• Standby generators are not intended to meet all of the electrical needs of a home or business. Do not connect them directly into your home wiring system without taking safety precautions.
• Proper installation and regular inspection are necessary to ensure the generator is safe for you and our linemen, who might need to work on your lines during an outage.
• Do your homework before you buy one. It’s important to understand your electricity needs to accept the right-sized unit with the right voltage.
• Make sure that you buy all that you need, including an approved transfer device or switch.
• Hire a licensed electrical contractor to install the unit. Be sure a certified inspector inspects the installation.

What do I do if the power goes out?

First, make sure that your whole house is out of power. You may have a blown a fuse or a tripped circuit breaker. Be sure to check your service panel. Check to see if nearby streetlights our neighbors are out of power. If your power is out, call UCEMC at 1-800-261-2940 to report the outage immediately. 
During a widespread outage, lines will be busy. Please be patient.

How quickly do UCEMC crews respond?

Every outage is treated as an emergency. No matter the extent of the damage, our crews start working right away to get power back on.

 What can I do during a power outage?

 First, find out if the outage is just in your home or in the entire neighborhood.

If it’s just your home:

• Turn off or disconnect all major appliances.
• Check the circuit breakers or fuse box.
• If the breakers have tripped off or fuses have blown, you may have overloaded the circuit. Reset the breaker or replace the fuse.
• If it trips off again, you will need to find the problem. If you are not sure what to do, call a qualified electrician for help.

If the power is out in the neighborhood:

• Switch off and unplug larger appliances. This could prevent injury, fire, or damage should a sudden power surge happen when the power comes back on.
• Leave one light switch on so you know when the power is restored.
• Keep a battery-powered radio handy to get updates on what is happening.
• Keep your fridge and freezer doors closed as much as possible. Most food will keep from 24 to 48 hours.
• Never touch downed wires or low hanging wires. Telephone or cable television wires that touch a power line can be deadly. Stay at least 10 meters away from downed power lines, and in an emergency, call 911.
• Never try to make your own electrical repairs to Upper Cumberland EMC’s equipment. Let our dedicated and highly trained crews do the work.
• Never pull tree limbs off power lines.
• Never walk into areas where crews are at work. If you are driving near work crews, obey road signs and proceed cautiously.
• Never use water on electrical equipment or wires in your home. Use a dry chemical fire extinguisher. NEVER attempt to put out a power line fire should a line fall near your home. Call UCEMC immediately and stay far away from the area.
• Never use a portable generator indoors, including inside a garage or other enclosed or partially closed area, as it could cause Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisoning.

Can I use my barbeque or camping equipment inside during an outage?

Never use barbeques, propane, or kerosene heaters indoors. They are for outdoor use only. Portable stoves, lamps, and other camping equipment can be useful during an outage. However, to avoid any risk of fire or to your health, make sure fuels and equipment are stored in a garage or shed separate from your home.

What should I do if I encounter a downed power line?

Ice storms, high winds, or tree limbs can bring down power lines. Never assume that a wire is dead. Please call us at 1-800-261-2940 to tell us about the wires or report them to the police as soon as possible. If a power line falls on your car while you are in the car, stay inside until an emergency crew removes the line. If you have to get out, jump clear without touching the car and the ground at the same time. After jumping, keep your feet together and shuffle away until you are at least 10m away from the wire. Check out the video on our safety page at ucemc.com.

Why should I stay away from downed power lines?

You must never touch or go near a fallen wire, even if it is on the ground. Fallen wires may still be energized and could cause serious injury or even death. If you see a fallen line, stay far away and secure the area. Please notify us by calling 1-800-261-2940 or report downed wires to the police as soon as possible.

What should I do after a power outage?

Carefully check the food in your refrigerator and freezer. If the outage was for a longer time (24 – 48 hours), don’t take any chances with spoiled food. Here is a helpful hint for when you plan to be away from home for few days. Place a bag of ice cubes in your freezer before you go out. If the ice cubes have melted and refrozen, the same thing has happened to your food. The freezer contents will be spoiled. Also, remember to reset your clocks, timers, and alarms.

How Do I make repairs to my home’s electrical equipment?

If there is damage to your home’s electrical system, UCEMC may not be able to reconnect your power until you make repairs. You may have to call a Licensed Electrical Contractor first.

UCEMC appreciates your patience during this winter storm that is wreaking havoc in our area. Please check ucemc.com and the official UCEMC Facebook page for updates as they are available to us from our crews out in the field. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Please keep our crews in your thoughts and prayers as they work in these dangerous conditions.