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Council committee asks NES for comparative data on 15‑foot trimming rule; NES reports early reliability gains
Summary
Metro Council Transportation & Infrastructure Committee asked NES for analysis comparing the new 15‑foot clearance to the previous 10‑foot rule; NES said preliminary reliability metrics show improvement but cautioned the sample is small and the group scheduled a March reconvening to review 12 months of data.
Council member Berkeley Allen asked National Electric Service (NES) for a formal, data‑driven comparison of the utility’s new 15‑foot tree‑trimming clearance and the previous 10‑foot standard and said the committee would reconvene in March to review 12 months of comparative data.
"Can some data be provided at this point now that you've got several months behind you that demonstrate the improved efficacy of the 15 foot clearance as opposed to the 10 foot clearance?" Allen asked, and later closed by saying, "We will have data in March on a formal evaluation between the 10 and the 15 because that'll give you 12 months of both." The committee agreed to the March check‑in.
Daniel Johnson, NES vice president of engineering, said NES tracks system reliability and produces quarterly operations reports taken to the board. He told the committee that the utility’s internal maps and monthly reliability statistics show a "marked improvement" beginning around March, but he cautioned that the current dataset is small: "we've started this 4 or 5 months ago...so, you know, a very small percentage of our system has been trimmed out," and more storm events will be needed to reach a conclusive finding.
The committee asked NES to include outage‑cause details (vegetation vs. other causes), miles trimmed, removals and workforce metrics in the forthcoming reports. NES representatives said SAIDI and other reliability measures are included in the quarterly reports and are publicly available, and they committed to provide a link to the board reports and to produce a side‑by‑side evaluation for the March meeting.
What happens next: NES will continue to publish maps and quarterly metrics, and the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee will reconvene in March to review a 12‑month comparison between the 10‑ and 15‑foot clearance policies.
