Mystery Solved

For the last few weeks, it seemed that at least once a day or more, the electricity would blink out and then come back on. A real hassle. If it was stormy or even windy, you would accept it, but it was happening on relatively still days. Calls to the electric company were fruitless. Today I found out why.

This helicopter came over and was hovering with this machine on a cable hanging below it. I know that in the past they have flown over with some kind of a magnetic resonator and lowered it on the sides of the ridge looking for unrecorded mines from the old old days, so that was my first thought. Then I saw it lower the machine down into the trees next to a power line and branches started dropping off the trees. They were pruning the trees so branches won’t bend down under wind or ice and short out the lines. It is a turbo mower like Ranaka uses to mow hay. It has a series of discs with blades on the outer edges that rotate hundreds of times a minute and cut like a Sudarshan Chakra.

You can see the power lines on the right side of the picture if you look close. The pilot has to have nerves of steel, a steady hand, and total focus to avoid hitting the lines themselves.

When something shorts the transmission lines, a two stage fuse is engaged. It interrupts the electricity, then comes back on immediately. If something hits a line and then clears it, the electricity stays on, but if it is still shorting, it blows the fuse altogether. The cut branches hit the line and trip the first stage, and that is what we have been experiencing. I got this from the ground crew that follows the chopper in case they have to remove branches from roads, fences, or whatever. Mystery solved.