ROPE Deployment Underway
Wisconsin electric cooperatives and others served in neighboring states by the Dairyland Power Cooperative generation and transmission system participate in a mutual assistance program known as ROPE—for Restoration of Power in an Emergency.
A large ROPE deployment was underway Friday after the call for help went out on Thursday from Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services headquartered at Albert Lea, Minnesota. An estimated 400-500 poles were downed and approximately half the accounts on the Freeborn-Mower distribution system were without power in the wake of storms—snow, ice, mixed precipitation, and wind—that tore across the upper Midwest Wednesday and Thursday.
Line crews from Wisconsin’s Dunn Energy, Eau Claire Energy, Jackson Electric, Polk Burnett Electric, St. Croix Electric, and Scenic Rivers Energy Cooperatives, and Illinois’ Jo-Carroll Energy Cooperative came to the assistance of Freeborn-Mower for a reconstruction project estimated to require at least five days’ work. Within Wisconsin, Richland Electric and Riverland Energy Cooperatives came to the aid of Vernon Electric Cooperative, headquartered at Westby in Vernon County, for a restoration effort expected to take one to two days.
Other co-ops in the region were coping on their own or with local assistance in repairing damage from the untimely return of winter conditions.
A large ROPE deployment was underway Friday after the call for help went out on Thursday from Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services headquartered at Albert Lea, Minnesota. An estimated 400-500 poles were downed and approximately half the accounts on the Freeborn-Mower distribution system were without power in the wake of storms—snow, ice, mixed precipitation, and wind—that tore across the upper Midwest Wednesday and Thursday.
Line crews from Wisconsin’s Dunn Energy, Eau Claire Energy, Jackson Electric, Polk Burnett Electric, St. Croix Electric, and Scenic Rivers Energy Cooperatives, and Illinois’ Jo-Carroll Energy Cooperative came to the assistance of Freeborn-Mower for a reconstruction project estimated to require at least five days’ work. Within Wisconsin, Richland Electric and Riverland Energy Cooperatives came to the aid of Vernon Electric Cooperative, headquartered at Westby in Vernon County, for a restoration effort expected to take one to two days.
Other co-ops in the region were coping on their own or with local assistance in repairing damage from the untimely return of winter conditions.