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County Improves Power Lines

By Courtney Taylor
Recently, Dominion Power has been working on the power lines throughout the county. According to dom.com, this work is scheduled to be going on all the way until the summer of 2012.
Driving around the county, it is not easily missed. The work has caused some traffic delays and many people do not know what is going on with the power lines or why the work is needed. Health and P.E. teacher Lisa McDaniels says she has noticed the work going on.
“I have had to wait for traffic,”McDaniels said. “Sometimes the work has affected the traffic flow on my way out of school.”
The goal of this work is to build a new 230,000-volt transmission line and substation facility to serve both Hopewell and Prince George. Dominion is also updating existing lines. Within the county, the electric company is replacing the electric poles, which are mostly wooden, with steel poles that are twenty feet higher. Johnny Harris, an employee for Dominion Power Company, said this work is necessary in order to meet today’s construction standards and accommodate to the age of the facilities.
“The present line has been in service for over 35 years,” Harris said.
The changes being made are near Middle Road at the Prince George substation. Dominion is also working on the path from the Hopewell substation to the Prince George substation and the Prince George substation to Fort Lee. The work being done is not costing Prince George any money because it is part of  Dominion’s normal reliability and maintenance program.
Once this work is completed, the new transmission line and substation is supposed to provide more electric service to support local growth as well as improve the regional economy.
“Upon completion, customers will see a more reliable service. This translates to fewer power outages and shorter durations,” Harris stated.
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  • M

    Melissa TomlinJan 1, 2012 at 4:22 pm

    I think that Dominion Power is doing a good job on getting the power lines up and quickly. Even though the process is not supposed to be done until this summer, it always seems that they finish each little section in day or two. This does cause some traffic though but in the long run I think that dealing with a little traffic every now and then will be beneficial in the long run.

  • J

    Jessica TaylorJan 1, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    I had been wondering what the deal was with all of the work on the power lines. I’ve gotten stuck in that traffic after school several times. I think what Dominion is doing is good, but I cannot wait for them to be done. It just seems like such a long, slow process, but at least I know the reason for it now so I can be a little more patient with them.

  • M

    Matt SchneckDec 30, 2011 at 9:44 am

    The article written clearly demonstrates both the positive and negative effects of the new power lines being put into place. It is very significant due to the fact that many of us faced extensive electricity issues right after the hurricane hit at the beginning of the school year. The age of the power lines clearly attributed to the duration of the pwoer outage. It is nice to see the the school news paper is taking on stories that affect the community around us. Keep up the good work.

  • S

    Sarah Beth HowardDec 28, 2011 at 5:01 pm

    The power company clearly is attempting to do good, but I believe that they should have attempted to monitor the area and the time of day when replacing certain power lines were easily replaceable without disrupting the general community. Night work is not infrequent, and could help areas such as the crossroads of the courthouse and especially the High School. Personally, this affected one of my morning commutes to school. It affected almost the entire row who parks near the road. One morning I woke up and found a power truck parking in my spot, with the extra stress to the morning, many people did not enjoy their day. Also, working in that specific area at night would not cause as much of a problem than working in the morning or afternoon.

  • S

    Sarah Beth HowardDec 28, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    The power company clearly is attempting to do good, but I believe that they should have attempted to monitor the area and the time of day when replacing certain power lines were easily replaceable without disrupting the general community. Night work is not infrequent, and could help areas such as the crossroads of the courthouse and especially the High School. Personally, this affected one of my morning commutes to school. It affected almost the entire row who parks near the road. One morning I woke up and found a power truck parking in my spot, with the extra stress to the morning, many people did not enjoy their day. Also, working in that specific area at night would not cause as much of a problem than morning or afternoon.

  • M

    Megan JonsonDec 27, 2011 at 1:17 pm

    It is nice to have an article that explains what is going on around the county; especially most of the student drivers pass them on their way out of school. Informational articles about the county like these make TRN appealable to adults in the county outside of the school system.

  • J

    Jordan ThompsonDec 27, 2011 at 11:48 am

    I found this article to be very interesting because I have noticed that the power lines near my house are being worked on each morning on my way to school. I think what Dominion Power is trying to do is great and effective because of the catastrophe they encountered post Hurricane Irene. The most interesting topic discussed in this article to me was about the Prince George substation being connected to the Hopewell substation which connects to the Fort Lee substation. It seemed to me that this is going to take a lot of time and effort on behalf of Dominion Power company. The article clearly explains its purpose and is written out in a well-organized manner.

  • M

    Marshall DunnDec 14, 2011 at 5:53 pm

    I thought that this was an informative article; it clearly explained the situation going on with Dominion and the purpose for doing so in the first place. I think that this should be the standard for all of the articles the newspaper writes.