LCEC stays prepared for hurricane season with new facility and stocked supplies

Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC) stays prepared for hurricane season by stocking essential supplies, upgrading infrastructure, and building a new service center to improve power restoration times. Complete Coverage: Gulf Coast Hurricane Week “It can be pretty tough at times, especially with the heat, the humidity, the conditions we work in,” said Aaron Wright, an LCEC lineman. Inside a warehouse in North Fort Myers, workers are organizing and stocking thousands of parts to ensure they are ready when storms hit. Rebecca Turnipseed, who supervises 17 warehouse workers across multiple locations, explained the importance of their inventory. “Everything that we have in here is a piece and a part on a pole out there somewhere,” Turnipseed said. Among the inventory are massive substation breakers, weighing between 5,000 and 7,000 pounds each. They play a critical role in delivering power from transmission lines to homes. Turnipseed said they began preparing last year, assembling 35 storm kit boxes filled with essential parts for linemen like Wright to use in the field. SEE HOW YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN LANTERN IF YOU LOSE POWER IN THE VIDEO BELOW: “Typically on a major event, we’ll work 16 hours on. We’ll have eight hours off until everyone’s lights are back on,” Wright said. The long hours often mean time away from family. “The kids aren’t used to it. My wife’s used to it,” Wright said. To improve storm recovery efforts, LCEC is building a new 12,000-square-foot, two-story service center in West Cape Coral. The facility is designed to speed up restoration times and make the work a little easier for employees. When asked why power lines aren’t buried to avoid storm damage, Wright explained the challenges: “Underground is not necessarily always the way you want to go. Any time you have salt water that gets inside of that equipment, it’ll ruin that equipment. It takes significantly longer to troubleshoot an underground residential distribution system than it does overhead, because none of us can see underground. So we do have specialized equipment, tools to help us do that,” Wright said. LCEC noted that 25% of its territory already has underground power lines, but burying lines is six times more expensive than overhead systems. In the meantime, the cooperative is upgrading transmission lines in areas like Del Prado, West and South Cape Coral, and Lehigh Acres to further reduce restoration times during future storms. For workers like Turnipseed, the goal is to get power restored quickly and return home to their families. “Of course I do. You know, I call them, text them, tell them I love them,” Turnipseed said when asked if she thinks of her kids during long hours on the job. The System Average Interruption Duration Index measures the total power outage time the average customer experiences over a year. Based on this index, LCEC reported that the average time customers were without power dropped from more than 84 minutes in 2020 to 57 minutes last year, reflecting their ongoing efforts to improve service and storm response. DOWNLOAD the free Gulf Coast News app for your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment, and original programming on your TV.