To learn more about the 2024 director candidates, each were asked to answer the three important questions below. Click the 'read more' button to find out how they answered.

Question 1

What knowledge, skills, and experience will you bring to CVEA's Board of Directors?

Question 2

What do you feel are the Co-op's biggest challenges in the next five years, and what will you contribute to overcoming these challenges?

Question 3

If elected as a CVEA director, how will you balance the desire to keep rates low with the need to complete expensive maintenance projects necessary to ensure system reliability?

Crews Eliminate Snow Slap With Cross Arm Project

With all the snow throughout the CVEA service territory this winter, you've heard the term 'snow slap' used repeatedly as a cause of power outages. As a reminder, snow slap is when heavy, wet snow that has piled up on power lines releases or falls off the lines. It can cause the lines to move aggressively and come into contact with each other. If this happens, it creates a fault. To protect the system from that fault, power automatically shuts down. It is termed snow slap because snow releasing from the lines causes the lines to slap together, basically.

One area of concern has been Airport Road in Valdez. This area has experienced a high number of outages due to snow slap because of the vertical construction of the single-phase lines. This design forces the lines on top of each other, leaving as little as four feet between the primary and the neutral. Although the construction was built to appropriate standards, the design does not work well in our extreme conditions.

Recently, the Valdez Line Crew began a project to eliminate the snow slap potential and improve reliability in the area. To do this, they added cross arms to the structures. The cross arm separates the lines and prevents them from coming into contact with one another when snow releases from the lines and causes movement, essentially eliminating the possibility of snow slap. The crews will continue adding cross arms in other trouble areas throughout the service territory.

Watch the video below of Valdez Lineman Apprentice, Justin Moncrief, as he installs a cross arm on a single-phase line at Airport Road. Video by Sean Herring, Valdez NECA Temp

Right-of-Way Management

Trees in the right of way is an issue CVEA works hard to combat each year through an extensive right-of-way management program, and planned system improvements. Annual focus is given to areas identified as trouble spots, or areas that have experienced an unusually high number of outages or damage due to trees. From there, focus shifts to the main line as that serves the largest number of members, then to lines that feed smaller areas, such as subdivisions and side roads.

Right-of-way management is ongoing and a significant amount of time and funds are spent on this effort each year. Annually, CVEA clears 12 miles of transmission right of way and 31 line-miles of distribution, with 20 of those miles in the Copper Basin and 11 in Valdez. In addition, crews tackle trouble spots with the SkyTrim. In 2022 and 2023, crews trimmed roughly 26 miles on the West Line, the entire Old Edgerton Highway, and 12 miles on the Edgerton Highway, respectively.

In 2024, CVEA will continue work on the West Line, trim trouble areas from Copper Center, heading south, and finish the Edgerton Highway, if time allows. In addition to right-of-way management, system improvements are planned that prioritize trouble areas. Tree trimming began in late February in the Valdez district. Crews began in the Browns Creek area and have continued to work towards town. This effort will include Alpine Woods and all taps.

Patrolling the Line. What Are They Looking For?

Fuse Cutouts - In electrical distribution, a fuse cutout is a combination of a fuse and a switch, used in primary overhead feeder lines and taps to protect distribution transformers from current surges and overloads.

During outages, cutouts help linemen find and fix the problem. Many structures on CVEA's system do not have fuse cutouts on them, making patrolling and restoration more difficult.

CVEA will continue the effort to add fuse cutouts to structures in trouble areas within the Co-op's service territory. This will assist with outage restoration efforts and improve system reliability.