To provide safe, reliable electrical service from overhead power lines, Northeastern REMC starts on the ground: the right-of-way under and around the power lines that bring electricity to your homes and businesses. Maintenance activities involve mowing, cutting dangerous trees, pruning, applying herbicide, and removing trees since untrimmed trees and overgrown vegetation can affect your electric service and prolong outages after storms.
A right-of-way is a type of easement or agreement with property owners that grants an electric utility the right to manage small portions of a consumer’s property for the purpose of maintaining power lines that bring the electricity to the consumer’s home, farm, and/or business, and those of the neighbors.
Generally, the most common cause for power outages and blinking lights are trees that contact power lines. Limbs that touch power lines can become energized or even break and fall, bringing the lines down with them. Trees too close to power lines can also be deadly to consumers.
Right-of-way programs trim, control and, if necessary, remove trees and other vegetation around 10 to 15 feet on either side of the centerline of electric lines. Branches growing through or around utility lines are also trimmed away or removed.
Electric cooperatives, like Northeastern REMC, serve the most rural, wooded, and challenging stretches of terrain in Indiana that are also the most green. A good right-of-way maintenance plan by the co-op helps ensure less damage and shorter outages when Mother Nature brings strong winds and ice.