Dear Members:

Last fall, two thirds of PBNA members who responded to our survey cited power reliability as a priority issue.  Subsequently, we met with a member of our Town’s Council as well as two representatives from Dominion Power.  The purpose of this message is to share what we have learned in three areas: Reliability, Capacity, and Power Quality.

Reliability.  We were delighted to learn that Dominion knows about outages at the customer level, and the Dominion folks shared—as proof--outage data on our personal residences.  For example, this writer’s house had 18 outages in the 1,239 days I’ve resided here, but 5 outages accounted for most of the 675 total minutes.   One was caused by a tree limb within PB, another by a car hitting a pole, a third by lightning, a fourth caused by storm damage to a major feeder line into Bluffton (affecting 1000s), and the last one was unexplained.  To obtain data on your residence, contact Dominion Customer Service (numbers are below).

Within Palmetto Bluff, we have buried power lines within the residential areas, so we are protected (relatively) from storms compared to similar communities.  That said, two structural matters affect our power reliability:

• While power lines within the residential portions of PB are underground, power lines which bring power to our community are overhead and more exposed to storm and vehicular damage.  Also, within the undeveloped and/or construction areas of Palmetto Bluff, we have overhead power lines which are also exposed.  Dominion’s policy is to trim trees on a five-year cycle, and Palmetto Bluff is scheduled for tree trimming in 2023.  Also, the overhead power lines along May River Road that supply PB had a “mid-cycle” trim last year. There are no plans to bury these lines; State of South Carolina utility regulations do not permit utilities to recover the incremental cost of underground lines. 

• Power distribution lines are more stable when the lines are in “loops” so that an interruption from one side effects fewer customers as power can come from the other side.  Unfortunately, given the relative “youth” of PB, many of the primary feeder lines within PB are “radial” or one-directional.  So, an interruption at one point will affect all the down-line customers.  Over time, Dominion plans to “close the loop” on multiple radial lines as Moreland Forest is developed further and Anson becomes a reality.  In sum, the maturing of PB should make our power network more reliable and redundant.

In the “for what it’s worth” category:  We learned than many of the breaker fuses manufactured and installed between 2017 and 2020 have systemic flaws causing “nuisance tripping”.  If you have one or more circuits that trip often you might want to check with a trusted licensed electrician. 

Capacity.  Palmetto Bluff is supplied by Dominion’s Pritchardville substation, which is along May River Road, and is expected to have sufficient capacity even as our part of Bluffton continues to grow rapidly.    In October 2022, Dominion brought an additional Bluffton substation (known as the May River substation and located close to Old Town Bluffton) on line.  This expanded local capacity and took load off the Pritchardville substation.  As growth continues in our part of Bluffton, Dominion will continue to shift load to the new substation, and they expect PB residents will have no capacity worries. 

Power Quality.  Many residents complain about power dimming, surges and other inconveniences, which often knock electronics and appliances offline.  If this is an issue for you, Dominion will help by inspecting your house’s infrastructure to diagnose the issues. 

Reaching Dominion.  The Dominion folks we met with suggested calling 888-333-4465 for downed and/or sparking power lines and 800-251-7234 for all other inquires.  Communication will likely be most effective if you log specific times, dates and durations of any outages or other issues. 

Please let us know if you have further questions; you can reach us by email at pbna2020@gmail.com.  

PBNA Volunteers

Bob Morette, Arian Ellis, Helen Ryan, Ford Bartholow, Eric Sutherland, Richard Cedrone