Neighbors say power going out repeatedly. Is it because Bluffton growing too fast, they ask?
A neighborhood in Bluffton is experiencing short power outages multiple times a week, leaving residents concerned about their electrical grid’s capacity.
Ralph Bockino has lived in the Haven at New Riverside in Bluffton since 2018. In the spring of 2021 he started to experience frequent power outages.
Bockino has a generator that records anytime it turns on due to power loss. While the outages are mostly under 10 minutes, they often happen multiple times a week.
“All of us carry keys with us in case our garage doors don’t open,” said Bockino of the residents of his neighborhood.
But the outages aren’t just happening to Bockino. Around 100 residents of the Haven are experiencing them, according to Mike Turner, the HOA’s president.
Even though the outages don’t last very long, they can still be an inconvenience.
“I mean, you’ve got to go around and reset every one of your digital clocks and your internet perhaps, things like that,” said Turner. “We’re fortunate that none of these outages have been for extended periods.”
Bockino and Turner are concerned that, with new development adding more homes to the power grid, the situation will only get worse.
The outages tend to happen at times when electricity use is higher, like mid-afternoon to early evening, according to Bockino and Turner.
However, according to Dominion Energy the majority of the recent outages in the area were caused by summer storms, vehicle accidents and fallen tree limbs, not capacity issues.
The more widespread outage that Bluffton experienced on July 10 was the result of a fallen tree.
“This isn’t an issue over quantity of power but over quality.” said Paul Fischer, the senior communications specialist for Dominion.
Bockino disagreed.
“We sit here when it’s very very sunny, no wind, no storms, and if it were trees and motor vehicle outages, I don’t think they’d be momentary, ‘‘ said Bockino.
Dominion says has invested more than $54 million dollars in system enhancements and infrastructure to increase reliability of service.The utility company also works year-round to trim and remove trees along their rights of way.
A new substation along May River Road is expected to begin operating this fall. Because energizing the substation will require the existing load to be transferred to adjacent circuits, the substation can’t be turned on during periods of high demand, like extreme summer and winter temperatures.
A new powerline connected with Santee Cooper is expected to be completed sometime in the next several months allowing Dominion to restore service and perform maintenance without interruption for customers.
“We recognize that no time is a good time for a power outage,” said Fischer. “We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank our customers for their patience.”
Another issue that Dominion has identified are AFCI and DFCI breakers installed in homes in the Haven. These breakers have a tendency to trip.
Since the breakers weren’t installed by Dominion, the fix isn’t currently known. However, Dominion said it is working with the Electric Power Research Institute on a nationwide study to help better understand them.
