Respect Right-of-Way Rules

 

As your electric power supplier, we take responsibility for maintaining the miles of power lines that bring electricity to your home or business. This means we must periodically use our right-of-way to those lines that cross your property. What is a right-of-way? It is a legal agreement that allows us access to the property directly beneath and to either side of an electric power line. Also called an easement, the right-of-way allows us to enter the property at any time, to perform maintenance or repairs to our equipment. We may also need to remove trees and brush that would obstruct our activities in the right-of-way.

Even though this easement allows us a right of entry, we try not to disrupt existing activities on the property. Reasonable care will be used to minimize damage, but some disruptions such as tire ruts from heavy equipment are inevitable.

The landowner, on the other hand must also comply with the rules of the right-of-way. There must be no activity, building or other type of structure located within the right-of-way that restricts our ability to work on the lines. This is less of a problem on open farmland, but can be troublesome in more populated residential areas. We ask that you not place storage buildings, fences, swing sets or other types of structures beneath a power line. It is unfair to other members if these items restrict workers from maintaining or repairing the lines after a storm. In addition, if a storm brings the power line down onto a structure beneath, a fire could easily destroy the building and its contents. This could result in a loss for the property owner.

We want all members to understand the rights and responsibilities of the right-of-way. As your power supplier, we will do our part to maintain reliable electric service. You can see from the images below how the lack of right-of-way clearing can impact our ability to reliably deliver electricity to our members.