Sumter Electric Cooperative, Inc.

Located in Central Florida, Sumter Electric Cooperative, Inc. (SECO) is a member-owned electric cooperative, and has provided electricity to the area since 1938 with financing provided by the Rural Electric Administration (REA). Today, SECO provides electric service to approximately 158,000 members in seven Florida counties. Its service territory is approximately 2,000 square miles – about the size of the state of Delaware. SECO is one of largest and fastest growing electric cooperatives in the United States.

For almost 10 years – 1996 through April 2006 – SECO followed a structured vegetation management program with a three-year maintenance trim cycle for all overhead conductors. This included all feeder circuits and laterals. SECO attempted to maintain at least a 10-foot clearance on conductors during the trim process. However, this was not strictly enforced due to customer reluctance to grant trimming permission. This reluctance also contributed to SECO’s negligible tree removal rate. In spite of customer trimming reluctance, SECO’s vegetation management contractor during this period managed to maintain a three-year trimming cycle, and followed trimming guidelines that they used throughout the southeast.

However, the 2004 hurricanes – Katrina and Rita – were the catalyst for SECO to re-evaluate its trimming policies. Although SECO adhered to the three-year trim cycle, falling trees caused the majority of outages during the hurricanes. Poles remained standing in many cases while trees caused conductors to fall.

In 2005, SECO contracted with ACRT, to evaluate SECO’s trimming practices, specifications and the overall impact of vegetation on SECO’s electrical system. Due to SECO’s desire to rapidly assess its trimming status, ACRT was required to provide a detailed system assessment report in a very short time frame. ACRT responded rapidly and met SECO’s deadline. They provided a team of Ready Force utility arborists to physically field sample the electrical system and analyze trimming practices. Their analysis was accurate as documented in their suggested “Areas for Improvement.”

Once the assessment was complete, SECO contracted with ACRT to jointly develop a revised specification package, bid package and evaluation matrix for trimming companies. ACRT worked side-by-side with SECO and provided all these deliverables on schedule. ACRT recognized that SECO had a very low removal rate for trees on its system. They recommended that SECO concentrate on tree removal in the 4” – 10” diameter at breast height (dbh) range. ACRT said that concentrating on these removals might increase the initial trim cost, but would reduce costs over time.

As result of ACRT’s system analysis and recommendations, SECO completely modified its vegetation management program in 2006. ACRT now performs all work planning and customer notification. ACRT then provides their work plans to SECO and in turn SECO provides them to the actual crews that will do the trimming. This three party approach to permission-and-planning has resulted in a significant increase in tree removals from 2005 to 2006. In 2006, SECO removed 12,877 trees during the maintenance trimming process. In prior years this number was negligible.
ACRT’s workforce contacts SECO’s members/customers as part of their work planning responsibilities. They obtain permission to trim/remove trees and essentially re-claim SECO’s easements. ACRT’s expertise and professionalism in this process has exceeded SECO’s expectations. In fact, SECO has had to intervene on a very few member/customer refusals or complaints. In addition to work planners, SECO has contracted with ACRT to provide field auditors. These employees are professional, knowledgeable, and provide timely audits of completed trimming.