On Tuesday, June 25, at about 10:15 a.m., a strong storm system produced heavy rain and high winds that caused widespread damage to our power grid throughout Marshall County.

At peak, Marshall County REMC had almost 5,000 of our 8,000 meters out of power for an extended period. Most of the damage to the REMC distribution system was caused by trees and branches that came down on the overhead lines. Fortunately, we only had a couple of broken poles, which can take a substantial amount of time to change. The remainder of the damage was primarily caused by trees on the line and downed power lines. However, the storm impacted more than just the REMC’s distribution system.

This storm, like many, also impacted overhead electric transmission lines which caused the majority of our outages. Transmission lines bring high-voltage power into Marshall County and are connected directly to a power generation source. Transmission lines also connect the REMC and other distribution electric provider substations throughout the county. Substations utilize transformers to reduce voltages from the high voltage transmission level, down to a lower voltage. This reduction is required to safely distribute power on overhead and underground lines before it reaches homes, farms, and businesses. Marshall County REMC does not own or operate any part of the transmission system.

Our transmission provider also experienced storm-related issues on several of their circuits, including multiple broken poles. Typically, Marshall County REMC has the switching capability to restore power on our grid if we lose a transmission circuit that feeds one of our substations. Unfortunately, in some instances like this, when multiple transmission feeds go down, it prevents us from switching a substation that is out to an alternate feed because they are also down.

Following the storm, transmission circuits were out for roughly eight hours while repairs were made. While Marshall County REMC was waiting for our power provider to restore transmission circuits, our linemen were busy restoring outages on our system in areas that were not impacted by transmission outages. At the same time, our crews were working in areas with known transmission issues to clean up known problems on the REMC line in preparation for when transmission power was restored.

I hope this helps our members better understand the complexity of the power grid and explains the restoration process when dealing with transmission and distribution electric grid outages. We appreciate your patience and understanding during these types of events.