November 2014 WEC PennLines issue!

COOPERATIVEconnection
Warren Electric
Cooperative
F R O M
T H E
G E N E R A L
The Warren Electric Cooperative
Employees and Board of Directors wish
you a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving Day
Having trouble paying
your electric bill?
One of 14 electric
cooperatives serving
Pennsylvania and
New Jersey
Warren Electric Cooperative
320 East Main Street
Youngsville, PA 16371
814/563-7548
OR
1-800-364-8640
FAX
814/563-7012
Email
[email protected]
Website
www.warrenec.coop
S T AF F
Gary W. Franklin,
General Manager/CEO
[email protected]
Alan D. Fuller,
Engineer/Load Mgt/Member Services/
Right-of-Way
Todd M. McClain,
Data Processing/Finance/Administration
Martin J. Hoffner,
Line Superintendent
Christopher N. Evans,
Engineering & Operations Manager
BO A R D O F DI REC T O RS
Dave Turner
Chairman
James Marshall
Vice Chairman
Robert August
Secretary
Jeffrey Sedon
Treasurer
Edgar Burris Jr.
James Goodrich
Richard Harrington
Don Johnson
Timothy Ludwick
E M ER G E N C Y O UT A G E N UM B E R
814/723-9460
OF F I CE H O UR S
7:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
M A N A G E R / C E O
If you are having trouble
paying the electric bill, please
call the office to make
arrangements.
There is help available
through the Low-Income Home Energy
Assistance Program (LIHEAP) at 814726-2540 or 800-403-4043. The EOC
Board of Assistance has funds available
for energy bills. Its telephone number is
814-726-2400. The Salvation Army also
has funds for utility bills in several situations; its number is 814-723-8950. These
agencies are for Warren County. For
information about Forest County
LIHEAP, call 800-876-0645 or 814-7553552.
Office happenings
The cooperative welcomed 30 new
members in July. That brings our membership to 7,709 and total connected
accounts to 8,826.
The cooperative’s office will be closed
Nov. 27 in observance of Thanksgiving.
Winter outage kit
Winter is here and that brings stormrelated outages. You should consider
preparing an “outage kit” to help you
cope with any outage situation. Kit
items could include such things as: candles, matches, flashlight and extra batteries, manual can opener, canned and
other easily prepared foods, plenty of
fresh water, windup or battery clock,
camp-type stove and fuel or barbecue
grill (use outdoors only), extra blankets
or sleeping bags, battery-powered lamp
and radio, emergency phone numbers,
and one phone that does not require
electricity to operate. These are just
some suggestions for your outage kit.
Being prepared is the key to dealing
with any emergency situation.
Conservation
Looking for helpful information on
ways to conserve energy? Go to our
website and click on “Self-Help Energy
Audit.” You will find information on
energy-saving ideas for every room in
your house and much more.
A little bit of humor?
A lady was picking through the frozen
turkeys at the grocery store, but could not
find one big enough for her family. She
asked the stock boy, “Do these turkeys get
any bigger?” The stock boy answered,
“No ma’am, they are dead.”
Turkey safety
Thaw the turkey in its original wrap
on a tray placed in the refrigerator. Allow
24 hours of defrosting time for every five
pounds of turkey. Do not thaw a turkey
on the counter. Thawing at room temperature increases the risk of bacteria growth
that even cooking might not destroy.
Thawing in cold water is safe. Submerge the turkey in its wrapper in cold
water; change the water every 30 minutes to keep it cold. Allow 30 minutes
per pound to thaw in cold water; do not
use warm or hot water.
Monthly brain teaser
Susan has invited her family to
Thanksgiving dinner. Susan plans to
buy new plates for the occasion — one
for each person.
There will be a grandfather, grandmother, two fathers, two mothers, four
children, three grandchildren, one
brother, two sisters, two sons, two
daughters, one father-in-law, one
mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law.
How many plates does Susan need?
Answer Last Month:
Pump kin l
Thank you,
Gary W. Franklin
NOVEMBER 2014 • PENN
LINES
14a
Warren Electric Cooperative
Transformers: Directing traffic on the electric highway
By Karen Combs
SENDING POWER to your home is a
lot like driving to a neighboring state.
You wouldn’t consider taking a twolane secondary road to travel to a city
hundreds of miles away, would you? Of
course not. You would find the nearest
interstate so you could drive faster and
arrive at your destination in less time.
Just like you, your electricity has an
interstate that allows it to travel long
distances, and a secondary system that
winds through back roads and neighborhoods to direct it to its final destination, your home.
Transmission lines that deliver
power from a power plant to substations are the fast-moving interstate
highways of the electric industry. The
high-voltage transmission lines are
located on structures ranging from large
metal towers more than 100 feet tall to a
single pole standing 70 to 90 feet in the
air. These lines carry from 161,000 (or
more) to 23,000 volts of electricity into
the local distribution substations.
Pennsylvania Electric Company (Penelec) is part of FirstEnergy Power Company that supplies power to Northwest
Pennsylvania and all of Warren Electric
Cooperative’s nine delivery points.
14b
PENN
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DISTRIBUTION: This is a typical rural electric three-phase 12,470-volt distribution line supported by wooden poles.
FirstEnergy transmission lines supply
150,000 volts to Penelec’s many substations, where the power is stepped down
to 34,500 or 12,470 volts of electricity
that then is carried over Penelec distri-
bution lines to the local co-op distribution substation or metering point for use
by your cooperative. And just like a car
leaving the interstate, the electricity leaving the substation has to slow down
when it enters the distribution lines
serving Warren Electric Cooperative’s
service area. Transformers in the substation provide the braking system for
lowering the voltage of the electricity so
it can continue safely along its journey.
So, how does it work? Higher-voltage
electricity passes through a system of
coiled wires located in the substation
transformer. The electricity enters a primary side of the transformer, which has
metal coil windings surrounding that
side of the transformer, and then passes
to a secondary side, which has fewer
coil windings. Travelling through the
reduced number of windings lowers the
voltage as it leaves the secondary side
and continues the journey along the distribution lines.
The electricity moving along Warren
Electric Cooperative’s distribution lines
is cruising between 7,200 volts to 12,470
Warren Electric Cooperative
volts, depending on whether or not it is
travelling along a single-phase, twophase or three-phase line. Consider
these lines the secondary roads of the
electric system. They make the journey
through the local co-op’s service area.
Distribution lines carry the electricity shorter distances than transmission
lines. They transport electricity to the
businesses, schools and homes served
by your co-op. These are the lines you
see Warren Electric Cooperative crews
repairing after a storm.
Your electricity has one more stop
before making its way into your home.
Just as you slow down to pull into your
final destination, the voltage is lowered
one more time. It takes a turn off the
distribution line and into another transformer that’s located outside your home.
This transformer may be a canister
hanging on a pole or a box in your yard
if you have underground electric service. Like the substation transformer, the
electricity passes through a primary
side with more coil windings to a secondary side with fewer coils. The voltage leaving the secondary side is generally between 120 and 240 volts.
Most transformers service only one
home or business, but in some subdivisions, two homes may share a single
transformer. These transformers are protected by fuses that will disconnect them
from the electric line if there is a fault
caused by current surges or overloads.
After the electric current leaves the
transformer, it makes its way through a
service line, into the meter base and to
its final destination — your home, where
it powers the appliances and electronics
of our modern world. As you can see,
the electric highway plays a key role in
powering our lives and delivering safe,
reliable and affordable electricity to you.
Learn more about electricity at:
http://www.eia.gov/energy_in_brief/article/power_grid.cfm. l
Karen Combs is an employee of Jackson
Energy Cooperative in Kentucky, and is a
member of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s Straight Talk STARs.
TRANSMISSION: This is a typical high-voltage transmission line supported by metal towers.
NOVEMBER 2014 • PENN
LINES
14c
Warren Electric Cooperative
You’re not alone
in the dark
B y M e g h a a n E va n s
ELECTRICITY powers our lives. We
depend on it for nearly everything we
do. So we understand how frustrating it
can be when you’re left in the dark.
Power outages are never convenient.
It takes a lot of hands to keep your
power on, and even more hands to get it
up and running when an outage occurs.
Warren Electric Cooperative works
hard to restore your electric service
when outages occur, but there are necessary steps to take to ensure that
power is restored to the majority of
members as quickly and safely as possible.
After a major storm, Warren Electric
line crews must identify which towers,
poles and lines have incurred damage.
Very rarely, but occasionally in the case
of a major storm such as a hurricane or
tornado, transmission towers can be
damaged. If that is the case, tens of
thousands of members could be
affected. Repairing damage to transmis-
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PENN
LINES • NOVEMBER 2014
sion lines is top priority when it comes
to restoring power.
High-voltage transmission stations
feed power to Penelec distribution substations. These substations serve thousands of members. If there is no damage done to transmission towers, the
local distribution substations are
checked first. If the issue is isolated and
can be resolved at the substation level,
great. That means thousands of people
can get their power restored at once.
At times, the issue cannot be isolated
to one of our distribution substations. If
that is the case, Warren Electric crews
inspect supply lines between the substations and the meters they serve. If the
supply lines can be repaired, power can
be restored to the homes and farms
those lines serve, as long as there is no
damage to the tap lines.
Tap lines carry power to the transformers located underground or connected to poles outside of homes and
other buildings. Warren Electric line
crews identify which damaged lines to
work on first based on which lines will
restore power to the greatest number of
members.
Many times, the issue is resolved
once the tap lines are repaired. But have
you ever lost power only to look next
door and see the lights still blazing from
your neighbor’s window? When this
happens, it could mean that the service
line between your home and the nearby
transformer may be damaged, or your
neighbor could be on a generator.
Power restoration can be a tricky
business, so if you lose service in your
home or neighborhood, please remember the following:
k Stay clear of downed power lines.
Contact with these lines could be lifethreatening.
k Report the outage to Warren Electric
as soon as possible.
We appreciate your patience and
cooperation whenever an outage occurs.
For more information on outages, stay
connected with Warren Electric on
Facebook or our Members Message
Board on the cooperative’s website at
www.warrenec.coop. l
Meghaan Evans writes on consumer
and cooperative affairs for the National
Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the
Arlington, Va.-based service arm of the
nation’s 900-plus consumer-owned, not-forprofit electric cooperatives.

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