After outage, town mulls options for replacing faulty power lines

Hull officials say they are exploring legal options in an effort to prod National Grid to replace two aging power lines following Monday’s town-wide power outage that lasted 15 hours.
National Grid owns both transmission lines that run from a power substation in Weymouth through Hingham to the Hull landfill. Once in Hull, town line crews maintain the system.
A fallen tree on Hobart Street in Hingham knocked down both power lines around 8:45 p.m. Monday and became tangled in the wires, causing the electricity to go out in Hull.
National Grid crews arrived on scene about 20 minutes later. However, several attempts to fix the transmission lines were unsuccessful.
“When it became apparent that there was no quick or safe fix, it was determined that a crane was needed to remove the tree before repairs could be made,” Town Manager Philip Lemnios said Wednesday. “The crane arrived on scene at 8 a.m., and the tree was lifted of the lines by 9 a.m. With the tree gone, repairs were made and electricity restored to Hull at approximately 11:30 a.m.”
In the wake of the mishap, Lemnios said he has instructed town counsel to work with an attorney that specializes in utility law in order to identify the town’s options for replacing the faulty lines.
“National Grid is regulated by the DPU [Department of Public Utilities], and that will be our first stop. Our focus is on how we can get National Grid to replace the lines with new lines that are constructed appropriately,” he said.
“The current lines were installed when FDR was president, [and] by any reasonable standard, they are well past their service life,” Lemnios added.
He noted that the power lines “are failing more frequently” and the “social, economic and financial costs are significant and avoidable.
“These lines are old and fragile. Hull town officials and state representatives for several years have been meeting and urging National Grid representatives to upgrade the lines. In, fact as a result of these meetings that began in 2015, National Grid has invested over $1.5 million in upgrades.
“There is still much that can be done, and we will continue to press for a complete rebuild of the lines. They are quite old, and there are newer construction methods that would reduce the number of outages. We have presented this information to National Grid on a number of occasions.”
According to National Grid spokesman Robert Kievra, the power company has invested more than $2 million over the past five years on improvements to the two transmission lines that provide service to Hull.
This work included replacing and repairing more than 57 structures, he said.
“We routinely inspect and patrol our transmission and distribution lines, and we consider these lines to be reliable,” Kievra said. “We have a robust vegetation management plan, spending more than $27 million annually on cycle pruning and vegetation management across Massachusetts.”
Within the past two years, National Grid has twice surveyed the lines with officials from Hull’s municipal electric utility and “have addressed any vegetation management concerns they brought to our attention,” he continued. “In this instance, tree trimming would not have prevented this service interruption, as the tree that fell was set back from the road and was approximately 100 feet tall and 25 inches in diameter.”
Lemnios, however, said the tree that fell was not within the easement area that gives the company the right to trim. “However, if the line was constructed using current best practice, it is likely the lights would have stayed on.
“We will continue to engage with National Grid to upgrade the line. We will continue working with our state legislators to leverage their influence to push National Grid to replace these two lines,” Lemnios said. “As always, we all recognize and are concerned whenever there is a power outage. This particular outage came at one of the worst times possible. People are already on edge and concerned about their health.”