It’s been three weeks since storms wreaked havoc on several central Kansas communities, including McPherson.  McPherson was hit particularly hard, with 70-80 mph wind gusts reported. The gusts were strong enough to uproot trees, rip off roofs, and take down powerlines, leaving 600 McPherson BPU customers without power. Despite the continued threat of severe weather, the small lineman crew worked through the night to restore power to all customers within 14 hours.  The utility’s quick action and restoration of power received regional media attention thanks to KWCH and KSN.  BPU Lineman Aaron Rush, unable to assist the crews that night, was asked how he felt about being unable to be out with the crews; he said, “It leaves a pit in my stomach to not have been able to assist my crew. Restoring customers’ power after an outage is what we train for, and not being able to work alongside fellow crew members to help our customers was difficult.”

While BPU maintenance projects do not typically get media attention, they undoubtedly kept the outage situation from being more widespread and lasting longer.  Rush stated, “Our crews can restore power quickly because BPU crews in all departments are good stewards of the entire system, from the power plant to the overhead and underground crews. We undergo regular training to perform our tasks to a high level of skill and are constantly looking for ways to improve the system and eliminate trouble areas before a storm hits, whether that be proper and consistent tree trimming to converting blind alleys(not accessible by truck) to underground or installing stronger electric poles. The crews and supervisors of the BPU care very much about the customers and the reliability of the power we bring to the people.”

Each year, the BPU allocates a material amount of its budget to maintenance projects, including trimming back trees away from power lines, replacing poles, installing wildlife guards, taking apart and cleaning generators, etc. As Rush said before, regular maintenance of BPU’s system and assets has helped identify and address potential issues before they cause more costly problems and minimized downtimes after an adverse event.