Spring time means getting those weeds under control, but for Gulf Power it’s a full-time job all year round. Vegetation management is one of the keys to keeping customers’ lights on.

Gulf Power maintains almost 1,600 miles of transmission lines and almost 6,000 miles of overhead distribution lines. The goal of vegetation management is to keep trees, limbs and other vegetation from coming into contact with power lines.

Outages caused by trees are one of the top reasons for outages. In 2009, there were 200 less outages caused by trees or vegetation compared to 2008.

“By performing many of these requirements now, the impact summertime thunderstorms have on our system’s reliability should be lessened,” said Sandy Sims, Gulf Power’s Public Affairs manager.

Gulf Power uses crews to mow, trim and maintain the rights-of-way along transmission lines, as well as keep distribution lines along highways, roads and neighborhoods clear of vegetation.

The company is using more than 100 crews (about 250 contract personnel) in an accelerated program to trim vegetation by the end of April, which is typically when summer thunderstorms pick up. And, of course, to be ready for hurricane season.

Work includes clearing rights-of-ways on the company 230-kV transmission lines to meet North American Electric Reliability Corporation mandates. The other programs are conducted on multiple-year cycles.

“We live in an area where trees and vegetation are abundant,” Sims said. “Because of this, we cannot eliminate outages completely, but through our vegetation management program, we can reduce the number of outages and keep our reliability high.”