Crews hired by Appalachian Power have been in neighborhoods across the region trimming overgrown vegetation to prevent future power outages.
“We live here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s a beautiful area. A lot of us are here because of the trees. But trees don’t stop growing, and trees grow very tall,” said Aaron Humphries, utility forester principal for Appalachian Power. “So you’re kind of prone to tree-related outages, whether it’s trees growing up into the power lines or trees falling.”
Winter storms battered the area earlier this year, at one point leaving some counties almost entirely without electrical service. Some residents expressed concerns about the amount of tree limbs on or near lines.
“You can drive through here and there’s limbs laying on the power lines from last year that haven’t been cleared, and until they get a good grip on it, it’s going to be one problem after another,” one Floyd County resident told 10 News in February.
It’s a problem that’s a costly one to fix for Appalachian Power. The company said it maintains 26,000 miles of overhead distribution lines in the commonwealth and uses outage data and current vegetation conditions to develop its maintenance program on a yearly basis.
Staff with the State Corporation Commission found that while the company traditionally trimmed vegetation along 2,000 miles of lines each year, that number declined sharply between 2020 and 2023.
As part of its request for a rate increase during the 2025-2026 cycle, Appalachian Power proposed using millions of dollars in added revenue to address circuits that cause the most outages and catch up on tree trimming and vegetation management.
In the end, the state approved a rate increase, including an increased allocation for vegetation management, but it was less than what was originally requested by Appalachian Power.
The SCC approved $29.5 million in additional spending to target those problem circuits and almost $8.8 million for tree trimming efforts.
The commission is also requiring Appalachian Power to present a detailed cost-benefit analysis of the program targeting the worst circuits during the next rate review process.