PECO said that, in addition to storm cleanup, the preventive tree trimming is intended to reduce outages caused by trees growing into aerial power lines or tree limbs that fall on to overhead lines.
PECO delivers electricity on more than 2,300 distribution circuits that serve its 1.6 million customers. The circuits are reportedly patrolled for tree trimming on a cyclical basis.
The spending on its vegetation management program is one of the key components of the utility’s preventive maintenance program for electric service reliability. The vegetation management projects planned for 2008 will directly benefit more than 200,000 customers, the company said.
The largest scope of work will take place in the Chester County of Pennsylvania with crews trimming along nearly 1,400 miles of utility right-of-way, covering areas from Malvern in the east to Coatesville in the west in addition to West Chester, Downingtown and surrounding communities. Crews will also work to improve electric reliability in Peach Bottom and Lower Chanceford townships in York County.
