Kentucky experienced two “one-hundred-year storms” in a span of less than 5 months: Hurricane Ike hammered West Kentucky’s territory in September 2008, and in January 2009, a severe ice storm struck, causing $240 million in damage to jurisdictional utilities alone.
West Kentucky Electrical Co-Operative (WKREC) was already in the process of a pilot evaluation of 10 RS poles when disaster struck. These high-performance RS poles went undamaged in the storm, and even carried the load of a neighboring steel pole when it collapsed. The superior resiliency and reliability demonstrated here provided unyielding confidence in RS poles – which are now used in the WKREC’s highest priority sections of their grid, including carrying the lines out of a new substation and a new 69kV transmission line.
RS composite poles have now become the preferred solution at many utilities that are faced with increasing natural disasters including damaging high winds and ice storms.
“You can’t beat the warranty. We like to use RS poles to harden our infrastructure in critical, high value locations.” — Steve Coltharp, West Kentucky Rural Electric Co-Operative
