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City staff says vegetation-caused insulator damage led to two recent Kinston outages affecting ~6,000 customers
Summary
Public Services Director Steve Miller reported that scorch marks and insulator damage found after vegetation clearing caused a transmission-line fault that led to outages affecting about 6,000 customers across four substations; crews replaced the insulator, infrared-scanned poles, and planned customer restoration.
Public Services Director Steve Miller briefed the Council on two related power outages between July 8 and July 12 that affected approximately 6,000 customers across four substations on the same six-mile transmission section. Crews isolated the damaged segment and switched customers to alternate circuits; the first outage was re-energized the following day and the damaged section remained isolated after the second event while crews investigated.
After vegetation removal along the line, contractors found scorch marks on poles and rust/brown residue at an insulator’s wire-side connection consistent with electrical arcing from the transmission conductor to the pole. Staff removed and replaced the damaged insulator, performed infrared scans of 42 poles (finding no other issues), and re-energized the line without customers on July 13. Miller said staff planned to restore customers to normal circuits the following week and assured residents they would not be billed for electricity they did not receive.
