Planting Guidelines & Clearances

Trees and shrubs that grow into power lines can not only cause outages and delay the restoration of power, they are also dangerous because they can become energized when in contact with power lines. 

If plants must be placed in the right-of-way, they should be a low-growing variety (species that grow no taller than 20 feet at maturity) and should be planted at the edge of the right-of-way and not directly under the wires or on berms.

Union Power will remove and/or trim trees on a cycle basis that are within the right-of-way area based on Cooperative specifications for proper, safe clearance. 

For information on the appropriate trees that can be planted near power lines, please call Union Power at 704-289-3145 and speak to one of our certified arborists, Wil Ortiz (ext. 3323) or Carrie Lorenz-Efird (ext. 3291).