It's taken almost a year but as of June 8, 2009 VMEU has at least 87% of its full generation capacity back, more than enough to carry Vinton in an emergency.

 Our biggest generator came on line in mid April followed a week later by our second largest unit. VMEU's total peak power capacity is about 17,150 kilowatts or 17.150 megawatts using 6 generators. Currently we have available 15,050 ready to roll out of the 4 largest units. The rest of the capacity should be available late June or early July. To put this in perspective, to date, Vinton's peak load in the past has been 10.6 megawatts which occurred in July of 2006. In 2007 we peaked at 9.8 megawatts and 2008 peak was 9.5 megawatts.

On June 11, 2008 VMEU was forced to discontinue service to the city when the flood overtook our distribution building and generation plant. Some customers on the south edge of town had their power back by that evening thanks to a temporary line set up between East Central Iowa REC and VMEU. East Central's line crew and some of our line crew built the temporary line and energized it late Wednesday Evening. By mid-day on Saturday all power had been restored through temporary generation to customers able to take delivery.

On June 8, 2008 at around 6:20 PM Vinton was left without power when Alliant Energy experienced transmission line failure when a severe thunderstorm went through the area. The generation crew was finally able to pick up the entire city after a couple of attempts. Alliant Energy had their transmission issue resolved by around 9 PM and the generation crew was able to shut down the generators at about 9:05 PM.

On May 5th at around 12:20 PM VMEU customers on the east and south end of town were left without power when a 3 phase capacitor located in our east substation building failed. The capacitor exploded, taking the back panel door hinges and ripping them apart and breaking the top off of a station class lightning arrestor. The concussion in the building was so great that it moved the steel frame & wall 3 inches off it's foundation on the north side of the building when a weld broke. The impact from the capacitor was on the south side of the building and we are still not sure why the north wall moved instead of the south wall. Customers in the immediate area of the substation of 1-2 blocks experienced voltage issues resulting in damage to sensitive electronic equipment. VMEU has hired a consultant to determine why the capacitor failed. The preliminary findings of the consultant indicate that the failure of two lightning arrestors at different locations in Vinton probably caused the problem. One lightning arrestor can short out to ground on our system and you will never know it, but let a second one fail on the system and issues like the one experienced on May 5th can occur. Crews were working at the intersection of 6th street and 8th avenue earlier replacing small conductors with larger ones but everyone had gone to lunch when the incident occurred. Customers that experienced damage between 7th Ave to 10th Ave in the area of  6th street to 9th street are asked to call the office if they have not already done so and give us your name, address and phone number.

Our purpose is to supply safe, reliable, high quality electric service to our customers. Our goal is to provide that service to our customers as economically as possible, to assist our customers in making effective energy choices, and to be responsive to the needs of our customers. This is a Public Power's Hallmark -- PUTTING OUR CUSTOMER/OWNER FIRST.

Unscheduled outages affecting all of Vinton for the current year: March 17th, 2009 for about 2.5 hours for all. June 11, 2008 for about 12 hours for some, up to 3 days for all. June 8, 2008 for about 1 hour. February 4, 2008 for 1-2 seconds.

notification of complaints resolution process

“If your complaint is related to service disconnection, safety, or renewable energy, and (utility name) does not resolve your complaint, you may request assistance from the Iowa Utilities Board by calling (515) 281-3839, or toll-free 1-877-565-4450, by writing to 350 Maple Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50319, or by E-mail to iubcustomer@iub.state.ia.us.”