The reliability of CORE’s electric service — already better than the industry average — improved in 2023. The System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), or average outage duration in minutes for each member served, decreased from 92 minutes in 2022 to 63 minutes in 2023 — an improvement of nearly 32%.
CORE’s SAIDI is about half the five-year national average of approximately 120 minutes, as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
2023 reliability goals
ASAI-the percent of time service was available over the 8,760 hours in 2023-also improved
The Average Service Availability Index (ASAI) — the percent of time service was available over the 8,760 hours in 2023 — also improved, to 99.99% from 99.98% the previous year.
Robust vegetation management, additional line inspections and multiple system improvements helped CORE exceed the 2023 reliability goals. They will continue to set aggressive reliability goals as part of the commitment to providing the nearly 180,000 members The Energy to Thrive.
System’s 2023 outage
Though CORE’s system continues to outperform much of the industry, it faces a variety of forces that cause occasional service interruptions. A look at the system’s 2023 outage causes:
- Equipment failure, 29%: This includes any CORE equipment that failed without an external cause. Common failures include transformers, underground cables and connections between overhead lines or service wires.
- Weather, 19%: Wind, lightning and heavy, wet snow are typically to blame for weather-related outages.
- Public, 16%: This is almost entirely commercial “dig-ins” of the underground lines and motor vehicles colliding with poles or pad-mounted equipment.
- Planned outages, 13%: These typically occur when lines must be de-energized to ensure maintenance and repair work can be done safely and quickly.
- Vegetation, 11%: Vegetation includes tree growth and windblown trees falling on the overhead lines.
- Animals, 7%: Wildlife — typically birds or rodents — occasionally strays onto or into the equipment and damages it.
- Power supplier, 4%: This includes both planned and unplanned outages of non-CORE transmission lines and equipment.
About 2% of the 2023 outages were attributed to other or unknown causes.
