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Storms and Your Electrical Service
Meeting the Needs of the Region |
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Central Hudson is making significant investments in the electric and natural gas
delivery system to meet the region’s growing need for energy, and to improve service reliability. Since 1993, Central Hudson has invested more than a half-billion dollars in the region’s transmission and distribution system, improving service reliability and upgrading system capacity as a result.
Demand for electricity in the Mid-Hudson Hudson Valley has increased by more than 20 percent in the last 10 years, much of that in former agricultural areas with previously modest power demands. Although new home developments have contributed to this increase, today’s average household uses 15 percent more energy than it did a little more than decade ago due in part to the widespread and growing use of home electronics, air conditioning, computers and the Internet. Continued investment in the electric and gas delivery system is being made to meet the growing energy needs of our customers.
Reliability is also a key factor in providing quality service to the region, as homes and businesses increasingly rely upon predictable and uninterrupted power delivery. Central Hudson is doubling its investment in tree trimming and vegetation management to reduce the impact of storms and severe weather on electric service.
Initiatives include:
Electric System:
Central Hudson will invest $158 million in the electric transmission and distribution system over the next three years to meet the region’s growing needs. This includes expanding, upgrading and constructing new substations, increasing the capacity of existing transmission lines, building new transmission lines, and reinforcing and expanding local distribution lines that serve growing neighborhoods and municipalities.
Natural Gas System:
Approximately $42 million will be invested in the natural gas system over the next three years, including a safety and reliability program to replace older gas mains.
Service Reliability
Over the next three years, $30 million will be invested to improve electric service reliability through tree trimming and vegetation management. Electric circuits will be analyzed individually so a customized trimming schedule can be developed for each. Factors such as circuit reliability history, customer density, and even an analysis of the annual growth rate of tree-species adjacent to the lines will all be used in determining the most effective trimming schedule to reduce service interruptions.
Also, an enhanced trimming program has been developed to address those areas where vegetation has the greatest impact on service reliability. Trimming will be performed within an expanded “box” around and above these lines, while “danger trees,” or those outside of the utility right of way that are dead, dying or leaning heavily and which may threaten power lines, are removed with the adjoining property owner’s permission.
A project to rebuild an existing transmission line in Orange County is under development to improve service reliability and meet growing energy needs - to learn more, click here.
