Chuck Chafin has worked on electric lines with the South Central Power Company for 18 years, during which time he’s seen his share of power outages and general destruction both in Ohio, and beyond, caused by extremes in weather.
So while he wasn’t particularly surprised at the damage that he and 72 other lineworkers and supervisors from Ohio’s electric cooperative network found in Georgia in the wake of Hurricane Irma in early September, it still presented a big job.
Driving on Ohio Route 7 south of Steubenville near Brilliant, the first thing most people notice about the Cardinal Station power-generating facility is the snow-white plume emanating from the tall, thin dual stacks on the northern end of the station and from the shorter, stubbier tower to the south. The color of those plumes is significant. Long gone are the days when the stacks would send black smoke into the atmosphere. Thanks to more than $1 billion in investments in environmental equipment, that cloud is nearly all water vapor.
There are lots of reasons that electric consumers may check into the possibility of generating some of their own power — after all, sunshine and wind are seemingly free, and modern technology has made it possible to use those resources at the household or building level in a way that’s never been possible.
But there’s much to consider before making that decision: economics — the real monetary potential of the system; safety — for both consumers and lineworkers trying to restore power during an outage; and reliability — ensuring a steady flow of electricity.
No matter how big a hero he became, through his pioneering work as a test pilot and astronaut or his service to the state and country as a United States senator, John H. Glenn Jr. never forgot his rural roots — and that made him a friend to electric co-op members everywhere, says Darrel “Cubby” Cubbison, the retired longtime member services manager at Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative.
