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For CMP, what a difference a decade makes

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The boughs bend but the power in Lebanon stayed on during last weekend's storm. (Lebanon Voice photo)

©LEBANON - There used to be a joke in Lebanon that if you could hear your wind chimes out on the porch, get the candles ready. You're going to lose power.

That's not the case anymore.

Last weekend with about a foot of heavy, wet snow on the ground and sticking like thick, sticky vanilla frosting on the trees, there was nary a flicker, thanks in part, to a $42.5 million Berwick Area Reinforcement Project upgrade from CMP.

"CMP has invested significant resources in the area for both transmission and distribution," said Gail Rice, a CMP spokesperson, on Friday.

Chief among the improvement project were improvements to several substations and addition of new substations and transmission infrastructure in Lebanon and the Berwicks.

One of those in Lebanon is on West Lebanon Road, fed by an 11-mile 34.5 kV transmission line from Butlers Corners Substation in Sanford, Rice said.

Other parts of that project included expansion of the Bassett Substation in Berwick, construction of a 2.3-mile transmission line feeding Bassett from our Quaker Hill Substation in North Berwick, and improvements to roadside distribution lines supplied from that substation.

"We have two distribution circuits operating out of the new Lebanon substation - these are the roadside lines that bring power to homes and businesses," Rice said. "These lines received $1.5 million in upgrades over the past several years, in addition to the Berwick Area Reinforcement Project."

But the transmission upgrades might not be as integral to more reliable service as the tree work.

In 2008, the same year as an ice storm wreaked havoc in the Northern Seacoast, especially Lebanon, where it left many without power for five or six days, CMP adopted a more frequent cycle for roadside tree pruning and distribution line inspection and maintenance.

Both of these routine maintenance activities are now performed on a five-year cycle.

"We make a point to do the line inspection right after the tree work is done, as our inspectors can get a better look at lines right after the vegetation has been cleared," she added.

While Rice was unable to quantify specific numbers on power outages between when the improvement plan began and now, she did say that since adopting the five-year tree pruning cycle, "we estimate the frequency of tree-related outages has decreased by about 30 percent."

Beyond the general improvement, Rice said comments from customers also bolster the notion that things are a lot better than they were.

"We have heard a lot of compliments from customers. It is not unusual for someone to call or e-mail us following a storm and tell us that their lights did not even flicker," she said. "This tells us that these investments are making a difference."

During last weekend's storm, which also lashed the Northern Seacoast with winds near 30 mph, there were no outages reported in Lebanon, with the nearest significant outage on the coast in Kittery and York.

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