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Berea utility reports fewer outages, AMI rollout progress and cemetery relocation underway
Summary
Berea Municipal Utilities told the council the utility saw fewer outages in fiscal '26, has installed just over 800 of 5,300 AMI meters, and is planning transformer replacements; staff also reported 72 burial sites identified so far as part of a cemetery relocation.
Kevin Howard, general manager of Berea Municipal Utilities, told the Berea City Council on July 7 that the utility recorded 71 power outages and roughly 70 hours of system-wide outage time in fiscal year 2026 — a marked decline from recent years. "Fast forward to the most recent fiscal year with 71 power outages and 70 hours," Howard said, attributing the improvement in part to an increased tree-trimming budget approved during the budget process.
Howard provided service metrics the utility tracks, including CAIDI targets (customer average interruption duration index) and service-availability benchmarks: "We shoot each year for under 1 hour... previous fiscal year was 45 minutes... we try to have 99.99% of the total minutes in a year" he said, summarizing reliability goals.
On customer-facing technology, Howard said the utility has installed just over 800 AMI meters of a 5,300-meter replacement program and aims for completion by the end of the calendar year. He described new outage-reporting tools (an outage hotline and a linked interactive outage map that sends text notifications) that have been in place since May and said they have improved response times and customer communications.
Howard also reviewed planned capital work: a Rash Road substation 69 kV breaker and bus upgrade and a 10-megawatt replacement transformer for the Oak Street substation (one existing transformer is 53 years old). He said the city expects a long lead time for new transformers — roughly 18 months after procurement — and that the RFP process will include installation and commissioning.
Separately, Howard gave an update on a cemetery-relocation project tied to floodplain and dam safety work: staff have identified 72 burial sites so far; archaeologists are set to begin work and five families have requested reinterment at other cemeteries. "We have identified 72 sites to this point," he said.
Why it matters: The report outlines utility reliability improvements, an AMI rollout that will change how customers view usage data and receive outage alerts, and multi-year capital projects that affect service resilience. The cemetery work signals an ongoing, sensitive relocation process the city is handling with archeologists and attempts to reach next of kin.
Next steps: Howard said the utility will complete AMI installations, proceed with procurement for major transformer work, and continue the cemetery relocation process with archeologists and property-owner outreach.
