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News flash:

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.

 

LINKS
City of Vinton Benton Development Group Cedar Valley Daily Times Coots Materials Company, INC. Eastern Iowa Computer Services Farmers Savings Bank-Vinton GOOGLE Search Engine Martin Eye Clinic-Vinton Palace Theatre R J Ender Computers U S Bank-Vinton Vinton Parks & Recreation Vinton Public Library Vinton Unlimited Vinton-Shellsburg Schools Russell Funeral Home

 

 

VMEU Office @ 214 E. 2nd Street

Billing is done at 110 W. 3rd street also known as city hall

 

Welcome to VMEU's website. This site contains information on your electric utility rates, scheduled electric outages for maintenance or upgrades, employee information and much more. Check our site out and put us in your favorites. VMEU was established in 1895 and celebrated it's 110th year anniversary in 2005.

VMEU is member of the American Public Power Association (APPA), Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities (IAMU), Resale Power Group of Iowa (RPGI) and Vinton Unlimited (VU).

VMEU currently employs 4 full time power line technicians, 4 full time generation technicians, a meter reader, a full time office assistant, a part time office assistant and a full time General Manager. VMEU also pays 1/2 the salary of the city clerk for the city of Vinton. Details can be found by clicking on the contact information link in the left hand column.

Change a light, change the world. Preliminary data indicates a very successful program from last year. Records indicate that 1,149 compact fluorescent lamps were purchased during the change a light, change the world program by our customers. Thanks to everyone who participated in this energy efficiency program.

 

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:

June 8, 2008 for about 1 hour.

February 4, 2008 for 1-2 seconds.



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