Regional utility EWEB has recently finished a project that it says will save its customers money and help reduce wildfire risk.
Spokesman Aaron Orlowski said this work wrapped up over the last two months.
“EWEB has removed 159 electric power poles along about five miles of the McKenzie Highway,” he told KLCC. “We’re saving EWEB’s customer-owners about $10.6 million that we would have otherwise had to spend replacing and repairing those lines. And it kinda reduces our footprint in that area.”
The removed lines ran between the Leaburg and Walterville substations.
Orlowski says EWEB is paying the Bonneville Power Administration an interconnection fee to use their existing lines that ran alongside the former ones. He adds that many of the poles were on private property, so having less infrastructure helps lower the risk of wildfires.
©2022, KLCC.
