Kootenai Electric Cooperative, Inc.

On November 17, Kootenai County and the surrounding area
experienced a wind storm with speeds topping 70 mph recorded at the Spokane
airport and exceeding 100 mph in some areas. The Kootenai County Commissioners
declared the county a disaster area on November 19.  Kootenai Electric, Inland...

Power, Avista and
Northern Lights all experienced very serious damage to electrical
infrastructure. Kootenai Electric Cooperative is estimated to have sustained over $1.4 million of
damage to its electrical distribution system and at one point over half of its
22,000 members were without power. Since the first outage calls came in, Cooperative
staff have worked around the clock to restore power to its members, including hiring
12 contract crews to assist in the effort. As of November 22, power had been
restored to more than 11,500 members of the 13,000 that were originally impacted.
Electrical system restoration efforts must proceed in a prescribed
manner in order to safely re-energize an area. Vegetation management crews must
remove trees in order to prepare the area for line crews. Electrical engineers
and staking technicians must assess the damage and stake the new infrastructure
necessary so that the crews can be supplied with the required equipment (new poles,
transformers, cable, etc.) to do their jobs. While all personnel are working as
quickly as possible, this is not a simple process and patience is required,
particularly of those who live at the furthest reaches of the system.  We must
work safely and methodically to ensure the well-being of not only our own
personnel but the general public.
We appreciate Mr. [redacted]’s position and have advised him of
this process every time he contacted the office. As he notes in his complaint we have crews working in his area are doing everything possible to restore power to not only him but all of our other members as well. We regret that at the time of
his complaint power had not yet been restored to his home but power restoration
happens at a system wide level. If we selectively restored power to
individual residences, outages that have a impacted critical services like 911, medical facilities, schools, nursing homes and key traffic control intersections would take longer to restore.
The Cooperative has made every effort to keep the membership
informed of the restoration process through news and social media outlets. Members
have been advised that the outage might last days and have been informed of
resources available to them for shelter. 
Thanks,[redacted]Member Service ManagerKootenai Electric Cooperative

Review: Power went out 11/17/15 and a tree fell on the power line appox 5pm.The fire department came out to our home and they called Kootenai electric to come out and address the power line to our home that was on the ground. They didn't hook back up the power line but cut it and left. Since then the power was restored to the neighborhood on 11/16/15 at 11am.I have called Kootenia electric several times yesterday and today and told them my problem and told them we have an elderly man on a breathing machine in the house. They assured me if they had someone in the area to hook it up they would. Yesterday afternoon appox 5:16pm two Kootenai line / power trucks left the Hauser fire station less than two blocks away. So being lied to on top of it really is deflating. I have exhausted every possible resolution with this company.Desired Settlement: Hook up electric services today!

Business

Response:

On November 17, Kootenai County and the surrounding area

experienced a wind storm with speeds topping 70 mph recorded at the Spokane

airport and exceeding 100 mph in some areas. The Kootenai County Commissioners

declared the county a disaster area on November 19. Kootenai Electric, Inland Power, Avista and

Northern Lights all experienced very serious damage to electrical

infrastructure. Kootenai Electric Cooperative is estimated to have sustained over $1.4 million of

damage to its electrical distribution system and at one point over half of its

22,000 members were without power. Since the first outage calls came in, Cooperative

staff have worked around the clock to restore power to its members, including hiring

12 contract crews to assist in the effort. As of November 22, power had been

restored to more than 11,500 members of the 13,000 that were originally impacted.

Electrical system restoration efforts must proceed in a prescribed

manner in order to safely re-energize an area. Vegetation management crews must

remove trees in order to prepare the area for line crews. Electrical engineers

and staking technicians must assess the damage and stake the new infrastructure

necessary so that the crews can be supplied with the required equipment (new poles,

transformers, cable, etc.) to do their jobs. While all personnel are working as

quickly as possible, this is not a simple process and patience is required,

particularly of those who live at the furthest reaches of the system. We must

work safely and methodically to ensure the well-being of not only our own

personnel but the general public.

We appreciate Mr. [redacted]’s position and have advised him of

this process every time he contacted the office. As he notes in his complaint we have crews working in his area are doing everything possible to restore power to not only him but all of our other members as well. We regret that at the time of

his complaint power had not yet been restored to his home but power restoration

happens at a system wide level. If we selectively restored power to

individual residences, outages that have a impacted critical services like 911, medical facilities, schools, nursing homes and key traffic control intersections would take longer to restore.

The Cooperative has made every effort to keep the membership

informed of the restoration process through news and social media outlets. Members

have been advised that the outage might last days and have been informed of

resources available to them for shelter.

Thanks,[redacted]Member Service ManagerKootenai Electric Cooperative