Dear Members,

Dear Members, I’ll start out by using a statement made to me by a member as December 2022 was coming to a close, “What a month!” That statement was not a question but a description of the many events, some highly unusual, that occurred in December and impacted our communities and the members of Randolph EMC.

Event 1

The month started out with a Duke transmission line outage from sabotage of two Duke Energy substations in Moore County on Dec. 3rd. That transmission line serves Randolph EMC’s Eastwood and Seven Lakes substations. We’ll come back to this topic shortly.

Event 2

Then on Dec. 23rd, as a weather front moved through, temperatures plummeted throughout the day. This, coupled with wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour, resulted in wind chills well below zero. It also resulted in power outages for 10% of the membership, 3,340 accounts, due to trees falling on the lines. Our team worked hard, and all outages were restored by 7:30 p.m.

Event 3

After the storm front cleared, in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve, Dec. 24th, temperatures fell into the single digits. This is somewhat unusual but not unheard of in our part of the country.

What resulted was unprecedented. To preserve the overall electrical grid from widespread failure, Duke Energy initiated rolling blackouts for portions of the state. Power demand was higher than projected.

Complicating this problem, some of Duke’s generating plants did not perform as expected. The blackouts impacted 21% of Randolph EMC’s members (6,858), for durations of 15 to 20 minutes at a time.

Since there was so much activity to report from December, I will focus on Duke’s transmission line outage (Event 1) in the remainder of this article, and I will cover the details of the rotating blackouts (Event 3) next month.

Substation Attack

On Saturday evening, Dec. 3, 2022, criminals attacked Duke Energy’s Carthage and West End substations, damaging multiple pieces of equipment with gunfire. The damaged equipment became deenergized, resulting in power outages for a significant portion of central and southern Moore County for both Duke Energy customers and Randolph EMC members.

Randolph EMC lost Duke’s transmission line delivery to our Eastwood substation, which also serves the Seven Lakes substation, at 8:37 p.m. on Dec. 3rd. In addition to contacting Duke’s Energy Control Center (ECC) that monitors the bulk transmission grid, our on-call line and substation personnel responded to the Eastwood substation.

Once Duke’s personnel arrived at their West End and Carthage substations, they began assessing the damage. Duke Energy was unable to provide our team with an accurate estimated time of restoration until around 8 a.m. Sunday. What we heard was not good. Their representative stated that since the damage was so significant, they estimated that repairs would be complete sometime on Thursday, Dec. 8th, four days later. He also stated it was impossible to back-feed their transmission line delivery to our Eastwood substation. This was obviously terrible news for the 2,737 Randolph EMC members impacted by this outage.

Our operations and engineering teams, led by Jay Albright, district vice president of the Robbins area, and Dennis Mabe, our vice president of engineering and operations, worked quickly and developed plans to shorten this outage for our members. But the options were not easy nor quick. Their goal was to bring power from the Robbins substation, just north of the impacted areas in Moore County. Their teams developed a two-phase plan they would implement simultaneously. Phase 1 would connect an existing, abandoned line to energize the Eastwood substation, and Phase 2 would construct a new line to energize the Seven Lakes substation.

The first part of the plan was to energize an inactive three-phase line near Bethlehem Baptist Church. This line had been out of service for at least a couple of decades but was left in place in the event it was ever needed—and how badly it was needed at this point in time!

Our line personnel began making repairs to this inactive line so it could serve as the temporary main feeder to the Eastwood substation. Almost 15 miles separate the Robbins and Eastwood substations. While spanning such a distance was not ideal, it was the only option to provide some level of power for those members. After much work, the temporary feeder line was energized Sunday night, Dec. 4th.

The newly created temporary feeder to Eastwood substation had a major drawback: it could supply power to only one distribution circuit at a time. It had not been designed to handle high load levels. With that limitation, our engineering team developed a rotation plan for the three circuits served out of the Eastwood substation.

The goal was to energize a circuit for two hours, then rotate to the next circuit—basically, on for two hours and off for four hours. However, two of the circuits experienced high load levels, so we could energize only portions of those circuits during each rotation cycle. This meant that some members were out longer because of this issue. We also asked members in that region to conserve electricity so we could provide power to as many affected members as possible.

But the bottom line is this: REMC got power flowing into the Eastwood, Pinehurst and Murdocksville areas 63 hours before Duke finished repairs at their damaged substation and reenergized their transmission line that feeds our Eastwood substation.

There are a ton of other details I could review for Phase 1 of the temporary restoration plan. But the bottom line is this: REMC got power flowing into the Eastwood, Pinehurst and Murdocksville areas 63 hours before Duke finished repairs at their damaged substation and reenergized their transmission line that feeds our Eastwood substation.

Now to Phase 2. To bring temporary power into the Seven Lakes area, we needed to run a new three-phase line on Beulah Hill Church Road between Harris Crossroads and Thomas Crossroads. Each end of that road had a short section of single-phase line that we removed to accommodate the new, heavy-construction three-phase line.

On Sunday afternoon, Dec. 4th, our line and contract personnel started delivering materials, poles and wire to the job site. Early Monday morning, almost 100 line and support personnel convened to build this new line in record fashion.

I appreciate the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) for allowing us to close the road to perform this work. We customarily do not request to close roads because of the inconvenience for travelers. However, by doing this, our team was able to work in a much safer environment, much more quickly. We really appreciate the DOT working closely with us.

At 11:45 p.m. on Monday night, Dec. 5th, REMC energized the new section of line and delivered power to the Seven Lakes substation. The low temperatures, high load levels and the passage of time from the initial power outage all contributed to the need for a slow “cold load pickup.” REMC brought members in the Seven Lakes development online slowly to prevent damage to the lines. By the early morning hours of Tuesday, Dec. 6th, all members in the Seven Lakes area had power fully restored from this new section of line. This was 30 hours earlier than if we had waited for the repairs to be completed at Duke Energy’s West End substation.

Once Randolph EMC had done all we could do to bring some level of power flow to members affected by this outage, I was able to tour Duke Energy’s West End substation. On Tuesday morning, Dec. 6th, I witnessed first-hand the hard work being done to make the necessary repairs. With what they had to deal with, I believe the Duke Energy team did a great job, and I appreciate all their efforts.

The Duke Energy team finished repairs at the West End substation a day ahead of schedule, and on Wednesday, Dec. 7th, at 7:19 a.m., they energized the transmission line that feeds our Eastwood substation.

Immediately, our engineering team began the process to reenergize the substation from this normal feed. At 7:30 a.m., REMC restored power to all the members who had experienced the rotating power-ups over the last few days. Shortly after, our team restored the normal feed to the Seven Lakes substation.

I am so proud of this amazing Randolph EMC team and our contractors who rose to the occasion during this very challenging outage event. Their goal was to work safely, creatively and efficiently to bring power from another area of our system to members who were living in the cold and dark.

For our team members who answered your calls, supplied the materials, designed the construction work, built the lines, kept the power rotation going, fed the crews, informed you through our communications channels and completed all the other numerous tasks that were required—on behalf of the Board of Directors, those affected by the outage and the entire membership—a big THANK YOU. You embody the cooperative spirit of service.

For our members who were directly affected by this outage, we’re sorry for all you had to go through. But what an incredible spirit of caring you showed through this adversity, for each other and for your co-op.

As I mentioned earlier, we asked members in that region to conserve electricity so we could serve as many members as possible through this temporary line. We had members who lived 40 miles away contact us and ask if their acts of conservation would help their fellow co-op members in Moore County. Unfortunately, they were on a completely different region of our system, but what a heart of caring!

One person outside our organization told me that the rotating power-ups would not work. This person claimed that after members received power, they would be mad when we deenergized their homes again. Fundamentally, he assumed that neighbors would not be willing to help out their neighbors on the next road who were still without power. But you proved that was not the case. Time after time, the members who were part of the rotating power-ups stated they were willing to sacrifice so their neighbors and community could have power for at least a short period of time.

One member affected by the outage dropped by our staging area and laid a $100 bill on the table. He stated, “Give this to someone that’s suffering through this event; I want to help a fellow member.”

What an honor it is for me to serve with a such a dedicated and capable team of employees. They consistently rise to meet any challenge with the goal of serving you to the absolute best of their ability. Due to the circumstances involved, this outage event garnered national attention, and it continues to do so. You should also be proud of how your employee team responded. Their efforts are being showcased on the national stage as the right way to respond to a terrible situation.

I am also honored to serve as the CEO of such a caring and inspiring membership. When adversity came, you pulled together to support each other and to support your co-op. That’s what co-ops are all about.

Cooperatively Yours,

Dale F. Lambert, Chief Executive Officer