PIQUA — Pioneer Rural Electric Cooperative Inc., an electric service provider that serves more than 5,800 members in Shelby County, and more than 16,600 in its entire service territory, saw significant upgrades and maintenance work done in Shelby County throughout 2015.

Jodi Borger, Prioneer Electric Cooperative communications coordinator, has submitted the following report:

Some of the continued areas of maintenance focus included ash-tree removal, a service that touched more than 500 members; tree trimming, which affected 1,700 members and is completed on a four-year cycle; and pole testing, which resulted in 850 poles being tested and affected more than 370 members, and is completed on an eight-year cycle.

Pioneer line crews and contractors have added animal cover up on exposed, energized transformers and wires to help eliminate electrical outages and blinks. The cover up project started in 2009 and focused on Pioneer’s electrical feeders most susceptible to animal-caused outages. In 2015, animal cover up was completed on lines serving more than 1,100 members, including three electrical feeders in Shelby County.

In addition to planned maintenance, Pioneer crews installed three new voltage regulators, three 12 kV circuit breakers, nine disconnect switches and new lightning arresters at the McCartyville substation in October, 2015 — a substation that has not been subject to extensive upgrades and maintenance in many years.

Additionally, Pioneer completed the infrared imaging of 30 miles of three-phase overhead conductors throughout Shelby County to look for potential problems, two miles of overhead conductor replacement south-west of Sidney, and installed new underground electric facilities in the Woodland Estates subdivision in Fort Loramie.

On a business-to-business level, Pioneer worked with Honda to add a third transformer and associated electrical equipment at the facility in Anna, to serve increasing load demands.

Our crews also worked with ODOT to relocate Pioneer’s single phase electric facilities for the I-75 – State Route 29 bridge replacement.

In 2016, Pioneer will continue to focus on our maintenance programs and technology updates to provide the best service and reliability possible to our member-consumers.