If you’ve ever lost power during a storm, you’ve probably seen utility crews clearing tree branches from power lines. But what if you swapped out the person in the bucket truck for a helicopter carrying a giant row of saws?
For the next two weeks, Eversource is chartering a low-flying helicopter that’s giving a new meaning to the nickname “chopper.”
Outfitted with a long aluminum wire, this helicopter carries a dizzying (and somewhat alarming) array of eight rotating saw blades. The blades dangle under the helicopter, cutting trees along a transmission corridor stretching 12 miles from East Haddam to Middletown.
“It's pretty impressive and cool to see,” said Daelon Carnelli, a climbing foreman, who cuts down trees close to residential homes.
Unlike Carnelli and his colleagues, helicopters can access remote, hard-to-reach areas where utility companies build transmission wires. The lines carry 115,000 volts of electricity from power plants to substations and, eventually, homes.
“This is the backbone of our system,” said Kathy Ferrier, Eversource’s supervisor of vegetation management. “If a problem happens on the transmission, it can affect the distribution system.”
Cue the chopper
On a cold, recent morning, Carnelli stood by Eversource’s giant transmission lines in Middletown, waiting for a helicopter.
“Here he comes,” Carnelli said. The helicopter emerged in the distance, flying low and slowly, the saw blades suspended below it.
“I’ve seen it tons of times. It still makes me smile every time I see it,” he said.
The saw beam is carefully maneuvered by a pilot who sticks his head out the helicopter, moving it back and forth, slicing off tree branches that are within 25 feet of the transmission lines.
“These are young [trees] so that means they're easy to cut through,” Ferrier said.
The helicopter makes quick work of cutting down the limbs, saving climbing foreman like Carnelli and his colleagues time and trouble.
“What he's done this morning, we'd be here a couple days, close to a week,” Carnelli said.
Helicopters are also helpful in icy, slippery conditions that can make trees and access roads leading up to the transmission lines hard for crews to navigate.
“We're eliminating risk to our climbers and our tree workers so they don't have to climb every tree and work in these harsh conditions,” Ferrier said. “Cold and icy weather puts a lot of stress on the worker.”
Eversource has been using helicopters at various spots around the state to cut tree branches near remote transmission lines since 2020.
While the helicopters aren’t used in heavily populated areas, Ferrier said there is some concern from people who live near the transmission lines.
“We do a lot of outreach. We let people know about the project, we send letters, we go door to door, we let them know,” Ferrier said.
“They want to just make sure that it's safe, and when it's occurring. I think people just like to know what's happening.”
Carnelli joked that the helicopters might one day put him out of a job.
“Times are changing. There's cheaper, safer ways to do things now, I guess,” Carnelli said. “I'm sure we cost a little less than jet fuel.”
Áine Pennello is a Report for America corps member, covering the environment and climate change for Connecticut Public.
Gregory B. Butler, who is an executive with Eversource Energy, is a member of Connecticut Public's Board of Trustees.
