Tips & News - April 2011

Anyway you want it. For Westar, that means suspen- sion assemblies in smaller boxes. “Seventy to seventy- five pounds: That is what we limit the package weight to,” says Jerry Lorimer, Manager of Transmission, Inspection and Maintenance, Westar, Topeka Kansas. And, that is how they get it. Westar used the Hubbell Power System’s TowerPak ® service, which packages parts however the customer wants to receive them, in this case, on seven different transmission construction jobs. “We’ve used pre-packaged stuff before. When I started on the construction side, in the late 70s, a lot of our stuff was boxed by job, but we got away from it, to some extent. Westar went through a long period where we weren’t building very much. Three years ago, our annual transmission line construction budget was less than $10 million dollars. This year, we will spend more than $100 million on transmission line con- struction projects,” says Lorimer. Westar Energy’s transmission system consists of about 4,500 miles (69, 115, 138, 161, 230, 345-kV) of line. The company just finished work (August, 2010) on a new 100-mile, 345-kV line that the company started work- ing on in early 2008. Although the 345-kV circuit is new, most of its route follows existing right-of-ways. The existing lines (69, 115 and 138-kV) are being up- graded as an under build on the new 345-kV line. “When we sat down with Hubbell to discuss how we wanted the material sent, we had some fairly specific requirements. We wanted to limit the weight of the boxes, because worker safety is our most important concern. We don’t want guys in the field moving around hundred pound boxes by hand.” SPECIAL ORDERS don't upset us:

Westar uses Hubbell connectors on $150 million transmission construction project “We also use a particular type of locking nut (ANCO Fas- teners, Lewisville, TX) on some shield wires and, periodi- cally we need larger insulators. And, we get everything packaged exactly the way we want it,” says Lorimer. In order to get materials in smaller boxes, Westar En- ergy requested that the assemblies be packaged per- phase, instead of per-pole. This makes the boxes much lighter and therefore easier to handle in the field. “At Westar, we’ve got a little bit of a crunch when it comes to finding qualified linemen. (But, there probably isn’t an excess of qualified transmission construction guys anywhere.) So, we are using contractors to build the new transmission and we want to help them work as efficiently as possible. We do as much as we can on the front end, like pre-packaging, so they have exactly what they need. And, we want the boxes to be light enough to handle in the field,” says Lorimer. Westar Energy is not as interested in the actual box as some companies. Some utilities using Hubbell Power Sys- tem’s TowerPak ® service specify heavy duty boxes that What You Need – In A Box of Your Choosing

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