West Memphis utility highlights outage improvements but flags 30% of poles as rotted; drone inspections to begin

Utility staff told the commission Feb. 19 that system reliability metrics have improved and that customers experienced few outage events during a recent weather event, but they also described remaining infrastructure needs and a push to collect better outage data.

Staff reported nine outage events in January (mostly affecting 1–4 customers) and reviewed 12‑month rolling metrics such as average outage minutes and frequency. The presenter said two recent outages were caused when two spans of wire burned where a connection deteriorated; staff described tools and procedures to find such hot spots before failures.

To improve preventive maintenance, staff said they will revise ticketing fields so crews capture more detailed root‑cause data for each outage rather than classifying incidents as "unknown" or "equipment worn out." The presenter said much of the “unknown” category often stems from animal contact, and the utility will treat many unknowns as animal outages when appropriate.

Staff announced new inspection tools: Eric, who represents the engineering department, is a licensed drone pilot and will use an infrared‑capable drone to scan crossarms and connections for hot spots that precede failures. The presenter said crews are marking poles with two X’s where ground‑line rot was detected and that roughly 30% of poles flagged in inspections show rot; the utility plans to bring in a contractor midyear to replace many of those poles before they fail.

The presenter said staff prefer proactive replacement to waiting for pole failures and that buying wildlife protection and proper connectors should be matched to data‑driven needs. Commissioners heard the plan and no vote was required; staff said they will continue to refine reporting and prioritize replacements to reduce outages and costs over time.