Lowest Liability Case Study
SUMMARY
West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative (WKREC) was in the process of a pilot evaluation of 10 RS poles when disaster struck.
PROBLEM
WKREC was hit with two “one hundred year storms” within 5 months:
- September of 2008, Hurricane Ike sped up the Mississippi Valley and hammered West Kentucky’s territory, taking down thousands of trees and 800 of its wood utility poles.
- January of 2009, a severe ice storm took down an additional 1,600 wood poles and an overloaded steel pole.
RS POLE SOLUTION
- The high-performance RS poles were undamaged and even carried the load of the steel pole when it collapsed, which was installed next to the RS poles.
- WKREC now has so much confidence in the RS pole that it uses them in their highest priority sections of their grid, including carrying the lines out of a new substation and a new 69kV transmission line.
“You can’t beat the warranty. We like to use RS poles to harden our infrastructure in critical, high value locations."
Steve Coltharp, Purchasing Agent
West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative