Multiple Barrington residents asked the same question following a recent regional storm: Why does Barrington lose power so often?

A look at the National Grid website during a storm on Monday, Nov. 30 showed that the vast majority of electrical outages across Rhode Island were in Barrington. In fact, more than 5,000 local customers lost power, while most other reported outages around the state were small clusters of a dozen or less.

"Is it time for underground wires? I am sure there are many hidden costs to not burying the lines. What is the issue?" wrote one Barrington resident in a letter to the editor.

"It feels like any significant storm will knock out power to most of the East Bay for hours," wrote another.

And it was not just the recent storm that has residents questioning Barrington's electrical relationship with National Grid. An October storm knocked out power across Barrington, leaving hundreds of residents in the dark.

A senior project manager for National Grid said the company's plan to modernize its infrastructure includes projects that specifically target Barrington's electricity supply area and are expected to "improve reliability and restoration times."

Jennifer Bray, who works in the communications department for National Grid, said Barrington has three "feeders" which serve most of the community. A feeder is a transmission line which carries power from a generator station or substation to distribution points.

Ms. Bray said National Grid is working toward rearranging the existing three feeder lines and then adding two new feeders. Ms. Bray said that those changes will "decrease the current arrangement’s circuit-miles and bring additional capacity to the area."

"The addition of the feeders in the area also mean more capacity and shorter feeder runs which subsequently improve reliability for the area," Ms. Bray said.

But it is not clear how long Barrington customers will need to wait for the changes.

Ms. Bray said three of the new transmission lines will be originating at the Warren substation, and National Grid is working with the Rhode Island Department of Transportation to ensure that the lines cross the Palmer and Barrington rivers through a conduit attached to the new East Bay Bike Path bridges. Construction on the new bridges has not started yet.

Ms. Bray said moving the transmission lines to conduit attached to the bridges is expected to eliminate some of the outages related to those feeders that currently run overhead on utility poles.

"… the bridge crossing (overhead) has been one of the historical drivers for outages during wind events in Barrington," Ms. Bray said of the overhead lines.

Two additional transmission lines will originate to the north of Barrington.

"These new feeders open new opportunities for additional feeder ties (they didn’t exist before) which mean better restoration times in areas that get severely affected during storms," she said.

The improvements are part of National Grid's "Rhode Island Infrastructure, Safety, and Reliability plan," which is approved each year by the Public Utilities Commission. Ms. Bray said the Grid invests more than $100 million each year as part of the plan.

Not unique

Ms. Bray said data collected by National Grid shows that Barrington is not unique when it comes to storm events. Information shows that storms do not hit Barrington any harder than they do surrounding communities.

"As we look at our data, we are seeing more customers impacted by what we would deem as major events over the past five years, compared to the previous five years," Ms. Bray said. "In fact, it’s about a 20 percent increase in outages during major events over that time."

Ms. Bray said National Grid's "reliability metrics" have consistently scored well and the company "generally" ranks near the top in the industry, compared to similar utility companies.