Tips & News - April 2011

TIPS NEWS &

will last even when sitting out in the weather for months. “We don’t want the boxes falling apart, of course. Those yoke plates are heavy. If one falls on your foot, it is going to be a bad thing, but we store our materials in locked ConEx boxes (not out in the weather). We do that because theft is sometimes an issue. While the lines go across coun- try (through the middle of no-where), our Stores sites are normally close to a town where thieves have better access. Copper is the predominant thing that gets stolen, if they can find it, but thieves will also take aluminum and steel,” says Lorimer. Special Nuts: No Problem Like most utilities, Westar Energy has a few company-spe- cific construction procedures. In this case, it is nuts.

much clearance as we would like. It might not be large enough for us to work on the line bare-handed, if we need to work on it while the line is still energized.” “We solve this problem by putting a 500-kV insulator —a longer insulator—on the corner of the dead-end so we get the distance we need.” A Major Design Change Westar Energy used Hubbell Power Systems’ Quadri*Sil insulators, which are typically shipped separately from the assembly hardware. Since the Quadri*Sil insulators come in various lengths (good for 69-kV through 765-kV) put- ting a longer, 500-kV insulator on a 345-kV line is not a big change when it comes to ordering parts. But, when a utility is building a 100-mile line--over the course two or

“We use an ANCO locking nut in places where there might be a vibration is- sue, like at the top of a pole where the shield wire attaches. The nut has a little piece of wire in it that locks it on and, if you put one of them on, you don’t ever have to worry about it vibrating off. They are made by Anco rather than Hubbell, which isn’t a problem. Hubbell gets them and puts them in the boxes for us.” “When we first started talking to our

three years--inevitably, problems occur that require more significant changes. And, Lorimer has had to adapt and adjust parts’ lists more than once. “In one case, a manufacturer unex- pectedly substituted some parts and sent us poles with attachment vangs that were wider than what the draw- ings showed. So, we had to quickly get wider shackles for those poles. If we would have had to wait for parts,

it could have seriously set us back, but Hubbell really worked with us on that problem. We didn’t have to stop work or even slow down the construction,” says Lorimer. Engineers Wanted When dealing with inexperienced design engineers, work- ing with Hubbell Power Systems helps in another way— assembly drawings. “We probably have four different consulting groups working for us now and not all those engineers are ex- perienced. We also have our own engineers and none of them have more than one year’s worth of experience.” “So, it does make life a little easier, if you can give an en- gineer a parts list and the drawings for a standard assem- bly. I can hand them the Hubbell drawing and say, ‘Here is what this assembly looks like and here are the parts in it and here is how it comes. It is all in one box.’ When you’ve got that many consulting engineers (and in-house engineers) without a tremendous amount of experience, being able to do that really helps,” says Lorimer. “The lack of power engineers is a big issue for us. We’ve been trying to add staff for a long time. To some extent, we are training people at the consulting engineer level. Like when we have to install 500-kV insulators on 345-kV lines. The engineers just don’t have the experience and I don’t think the problem is going to go away anytime soon,” says Lorimer.

Hubbell rep about the nuts, he didn’t know what they were. I happened to have some to show him and I told him why we use them. He actually passed that informa- tion on to other utilities and, from what I understand, there are more people using them, now,” says Lorimer. Design Changes Like most other utilities, Westar Energy has trouble find- ing engineers with transmission design experience and, therefore, often relies on the services of consulting firms. Even so, the consulting engineers do not necessarily have a wealth of utility experience and may not be completely familiar with standard utility work practices. This can cre- ate problems that require unplanned changes to parts lists and special orders, so having a close working relationship with a parts supplier is beneficial. A Minor Change “Our major projects are now designed by consulting engi- neers and sometimes there are issues. For example, there have been some problems with the designs of 90 degree corners on 345-kV transmission lines,” says Lorimer. “To get the clearances just right, the engineer has to prop- erly calculate the distance from the corona ring back to the arm. Sometimes, we end up with a design with has a clearance that meets NESC code, but that isn’t always as

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