Decatur County REMC
1430 W. Main Street
Greensburg, IN 47240
March 20, 2025
RE: Response to March 14, 2025, Member Complaint regarding outages at New Point Substation
Dear: William Wietlisbach, Kenneth Peters, Theodore Hahn, Charles Dieckmann, William Graves, Joyce Kessens, Lawrence Sidell, Leo Fullenkamp,
Pursuant to Rule 16 of the DCREMC Rules and Regulations for Electric Service, DCREMC has promptly, thoroughly and completely investigated your member complaint set forth in correspondence from Mathew Land dated March 14, 2025 and is hereby providing a response to the complaint. Specifically, your member complaint states: “Members who are provided power from the New Point Sub-Station have endured multiple outages and brown outs since at least 2017.”
Based on our investigation, we conclude that (i) reliability metrics for members served by the New Point Sub-Station were stronger in 2024 than metrics for the entire DCREMC system; (ii) DCREMC’s overall reliability metrics exceed (by far) industry averages; (iii) DCREMC has received only two (2) complaints from members served by this substation relating to single-phasing that were thoroughly and completely investigated and closed in 2022 and 2023 respectively; and (iii) DCREMC has not received any specific complaints regarding single phasing since those complaints were addressed pursuant to Rule 16.
I. Our Approach to Reliability:
The DCREMC electric distribution system spans hundreds of miles and includes thousands of poles, which means there are numerous factors such as vehicle accidents, wildlife activity, or severe weather-that could lead to service interruptions. To ensure consistent, reliable service, DCREMC continually assesses the costs and benefits of infrastructure upgrades, vegetation management, and operational practices. These ongoing evaluations help us maintain and improve the reliability of our system.
We create a 3-5-year construction work plan based on a system capacity/reliability study.
We perform an annual review of substation reliability metrics with our wholesale power provider. If any substation falls below acceptable standards, root cause analysis and corrective actions are incorporated into their 3-5-year construction work plan We perform an annual review of distribution system reliability metrics with strategic adjustments made as needed. The current strategy includes an annual infrastructure inspection and replacement program and a comprehensive tree trimming program.
II. DCREMC’s Reliability Metrics:
DCREMC’s reliability metrics exceed industry peers:
DCREMC’s system average interruption duration index (SAIDI) for 2024 was 104, compared to the five-year average SAIDI metric across all electric cooperatives in Indiana of 267.
New Point Substation outperformed the DCREMC System on average in 2024:
2024 Lost Consumer Minutes for New Point Substation was 44% of the average Lost Consumer Minutes across all of DCREMC’s substations
2024 Total Outages for New Point Substation was 92% of the average total outages across all of DCREMC’s substations.
III. Prior Complaints relating to New Point Substation have been Investigated and Closed:
On 3/17/2022 at 2:16 p.m., the New Point substation experienced an outage due to a bird interfering with the AMI system, causing damage resulting in a blown high side substation fuse.
At 9:15 p.m. the same day, a second high-side fuse failed, leading to a second outage
At the March 22, 2022, board meeting, our power supplier shared their corrective action, which included a policy change for replacing all high-side substation fuses in the event of one blowing.
On April 1, 2022, Jeff Lawrence (who was a sitting director) filed a member complaint relating to the March 17, 2022 outage under R&R Rule 16, Appendix A, and a formal response was provided on April 14, 2022 (“Complaint 001_1April22 Response Final”).
Action item BM21FEB221 was created to track ongoing efforts related to the outage
A memo on July 13, 2022, updated the board on the work done by operations to assess whether further substation changes were required (“Action Item BM21FEB221 Memo”)
The board closed out action item BM21FEB221 at the July 2022 meeting.
On October 18, 2023, William Graves submitted a formal complaint, referenced as “001-180CT23 Complaint” complaining of a single- phasing incident occurring on August 20, 2023 which was caused by a bull dozer falling off a trailer while traveling down the road and broke an electric pole. DCREMC responded to the complaint on October 22, 2023, which is included as “001-180CT23 Response”. These are the sole complaints DCREMC has received regarding single phasing
IV. Actions that would completely eliminate incidents of single-phasing for members served by New Point Substation are costly and unreasonable:
To the extent your member complaint is requesting DCREMC to take steps to completely eliminate incidents of single-phasing for members served by the New Point Substation, that is an costly and unreasonable request that is unfair to other DCREMC members. First, incidents of single-phasing are rare and occur in unique circumstances such as wildlife interference with the substation or major pole collisions occurring very close to the substation. Second, the options to eliminate these rare occurrences are either extremely costly (constructing a redundant circuit to serve all members from New Point Substation) or would result in more frequent total outages for many more members that are served by New Point Substation. In short, the costs of completely eliminating the possibility of single-phasing far exceed the benefits to DCREMC’s overall membership.
V. Conclusion:
DCREMC’s reliability metrics demonstrate that members receiving service from the New Point Sub-Station receive electric service that is more reliable than customers of industry peers and more reliable than the average DCREMC member. Pursuant to Rule 16(2)(b), if you are not satisfied with this response, you may ask to meet with me to discuss the complaint. Otherwise, our records and further action on this matter will be completed and closed.
That letter is signed by Decatur County REMC CEO Brett Abplanalp
