Despite our pledge to provide our members with a consistent, reliable flow of power, outages will still sometimes strike due to circumstances beyond our control. This can be due to a variety of factors, such as:
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Weather:
Power can be affected by weather events like extreme temperatures (either heat or cold), ice buildup on power lines, lightning strikes, or high winds and heavy rain from storms. In severe cases, older power lines can be completely broken by strong winds during major storms!
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Animals:
Small animals, typically squirrels or birds, can short circuit pole-mounted electrical equipment like transformers or fuses.
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Tree limbs:
Falling trees or tree limbs coming in contact with power lines can affect the flow of power to homes. During storms, these are the leading causes of outages. This is why Sussex Rural Electric strongly advocates against planting trees too close to power lines and invests heavily in trimming tree limbs in our service area. Visit our Tree Management page for more details on how SREC works to prevent blinks and outages caused by tree limbs.
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Vehicle accidents:
Accidents involving road vehicles or farm and construction equipment can damage poles, sometimes even breaking them.