Appalachian Power officials are calling the recent number of outages in the Fort Hill area "unacceptable."
In the past two weeks, there have been six power outages for customers near Oakwood Road, Cantley Drive and the Vandalia neighborhood, said Jeri Matheney, Appalachian Power's communications director.
For some customers, there have been as many as two outages in one day.
"That's not the kind of reliability customers should have," Matheney said. "It's definitely far too many for one neighborhood to have to experience in such a short period of time."
Appalachian Power discovered four areas where vines or tree branches were growing into the power lines, causing equipment to fail.
Matheney said the company is in the process of notifying property owners and expects to trim the problem trees and vines next week.
In addition to the identified vegetation problems, workers are in the process of inspecting equipment to confirm there aren't any additional causes for the outages.
"We're still trying to identify if there are any other problems beyond the trees [and] trying to find out if there's anything else causing these outages," Matheney said.
One of the outages was caused by a mylar balloon, a foil helium-filled balloon typically purchased as a gift for special occasions, flying into one of the lines, Matheney added.
"Suddenly [it] seems like everything has conspired to go wrong in that area at once," Matheney said.
Trees and vegetation are related to about half of Appalachian Power's outages statewide. The company is one year into its aggressive vegetation management plan, but it will take them a total of six years to fully trim all problem trees.
Matheney said the vines have been particularly bad this year, and caused the most recent outage in the Fort Hill neighborhood shortly before midnight Wednesday.
The utility expects to work on the four affected areas next week, after notifying the property owners. Matheney said she doesn't think customers will experience any additional outages during the tree and vine trimmings, but it could be possible.
Reach Laura Haight at laura.haight@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4843 or follow @laurahaight_ on Twitter.