When Lighting Becomes A Lineman’s Best Friend.
Published in: Transmission & Distribution World
Date: 1/1/2006
By: Charlie Ray, Duquesne Light
For 125 years, Duquesne Light (DL) has been serving the electricity needs of its customers in the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan region. The area is spread over 800 sq miles and is dotted with some difficult, mountainous terrain. Our utility currently employs approximately 250 linemen and has about 620 line trucks. If the notorious weather in the northeast and the terrain conditions weren’t enough of a challenge for our linemen, we are also in the midst of a $500 million upgrade of our infrastructure to meet the energy needs of the 21 [superscript]st century. A utility our age also has equipment that needs to be refurbished in a timely manner. More than 587,000 residential and commercial customers are counting on us for quality and reliable service. Needless to say, every lineman at our utility is constantly busy.
When Lighting Becomes Everything
Everyone agrees that trouble calls need to be done quickly, correctly and safely. But the task often becomes twice as challenging at night, given the less-than-perfect lighting. The Pittsburgh region sees some of the most extreme weather conditions: extended heat waves, summer thunderstorms, torrential rains, snow and ice storms. These can often interrupt service. And when such interruptions occur at night, lighting becomes everything.
DL needed lighting equipment that would allow our linemen to complete quality work in an expeditious manner, day or night. Throughout the years, we tried spotlights, hood-mounted lights and hardhat lights, but all had significant limitations. Some of the lights did not have strong enough beams to properly illuminate work areas; others were cumbersome to use. Sometimes it took an extra hand just to hold the light. And it seemed like every time we went to replace a fuse at night, telephone and cable lines, a transformer or tree limbs were casting shadows on the work area.
A blown fuse barrel is a good example of a challenge that needs to be changed out regardless if its day or night. Changing out fuse barrels requires specialized lighting tools. DL’s experiments with various types of lighting equipment taught us a valuable lesson. Traditional light equipment did not shine where we wanted it to and was often blocked by other cable or equipment surrounding the work area, casting shadows right where we needed to see the most. All of DL’s line supervisors had been searching for a solution, but we found that existing products had not been primarily designed for this task or were simply inadequate.
In early 2005, Line Supervisor Dan Bornak brought forth information about a specialty light for use in hot stick operations in dark or underground work areas. The device, used primarily for changing out fuse barrels, has an LED light built in the hot stick, making it safer and more efficient to work in poorly lighted areas. The light has a patented spline connector, which easily attaches to hot sticks made by all the major manufacturers. Of greatest interest to DL was the promise that the “light on the stick” would allow linemen to shine light directly on their work areas with no shadows, adjustments, headaches or hassles.
At first glance, the product, called the LitFinger, looked like it could take a beating. The manufacturer, Underwater Kinetics (Poway, California), reported that the system had been subjected to a 2000[degrees]F arc blast and suffered no damage. It was also put directly in the path of a 35,000[degrees]F arc blast. Although the unit’s casing was damaged, the light and buttons still worked.
Put To The Test
Our linemen were impressed. The LitFinger had night-use potential not only for fuse changeouts but cutouts, switches and disconnects. DL has a thorough evaluation process, so before we made a company-wide purchase decision, the purchasing committee reviewed the product. Ultimately, as manager of DL’s Preble Service Center, it is my call to order equipment for linemen, substations, the rigging group and the telecommunications group, but I like to do my due diligence, and that includes getting feedback from my associates.
We decided to purchase six units to evaluate the suitability of the innovative light on a stick. They were assigned to linemen who worked the back shift, 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. Service crews were instructed to put them through the paces, use them as often as possible and even try to purposely break them. Some linemen used them as tree hooks. After two weeks, the report from the field was clear. As one lineman reported, “We’ve been waiting for a tool like this for years.”
We called a meeting to evaluate the feedback from the field. All of the line supervisors, an engineer and a representative from production management (the department that measures productivity) attended. The committee was particularly impressed with the brightness of the LED light. It is rated at 15 lumens on high and 7 lumens on low, which fully illuminates the exact work area without any shadows. The light runs on three off-the-shelf AAA alkaline batteries, and we use lithium batteries in cold weather. We also liked that it was water, heat and flash resistant.
Larry Wallace, our service center manager at South Hills, was one of the product’s champions in our meetings. He is a seasoned veteran of the utility industry and urged us to go forward with purchasing additional units. The committee concluded the unit was just what we needed, and we decided to buy 200 units, all of which were given to our first responders.
Before we heard about the lighting at the end of the hot stick, our linemen were sometimes spending considerable time trying to properly illuminate a work area, such as a fuse box 40 ft up in the air. In contrast, now light can be put at the end of a 40-ft pole, eliminating the need for a bucket truck. It can also be attached to a 12-ft pole if a lineman wishes to climb a pole in order to reset a fuse. With the LitFinger, linemen can properly illuminate their work areas immediately, and are no longer wasting time struggling with getting inadequate lighting equipment in place. Sometimes another lineman is not needed to assist with lighting and tag teaming.
More Light for Emergency Calls
The initial rollout of the light on a stick was a complete success. The number has grown to more than 300 units in use in the field, and 100 in stock for future expansion and seasonal construction peak times. Crews are always striving to get our customers back on-line as quickly as possible. And when storms hit our system, the demand becomes even more urgent. In the past, inadequate lighting equipment, such as truck-mounted spotlights, has resulted in lost productivity and greater risk to our safety. Scrambling for better lighting or having an extra worker just holding a light translates into lost revenues for our utility. In December 2005, when a storm dumped 6 inches of snow on our system, all of the crews had their hot sticks outfitted with the new lighting. This enabled line workers to be more productive and efficient, and helped them do their jobs more safely.
The LitFinger will also play a safety and productivity role in our $500 million upgrade initiative to refurbish circuits and equipment in southwestern Pennsylvania. This includes replacing aging underground systems that power sections of downtown Pittsburgh and the North Side commercial district. We are also finishing the conversion of older distribution circuits to higher-voltage circuits and upgrading underground lines that have been in service from as far back as the 1960s. Workers going into underground vaults and manholes with a hot stick are now carrying the LitFinger on the end of their sticks.
Mother Nature continues to throw everything she can at our utility’s system and linemen. Working in difficult terrain and an escalating work schedule have been a challenge. Like any good thing that comes along, these lighting devices have proven to be valuable enough that everyone at DL who works underground circuits, a storm or a trouble call at night wants to have one on his truck.
Charlie Ray is the manager of Duquesne Light’s Preble Service Center, and is responsible for overseeing the metropolitan area of Pittsburgh. Ray has worked for the utility for more than 33 years and was promoted to this position after holding a variety of positions in the company, including that of lineman. cray@duqlight.com
LESSONS LEARNED ON A 160-MILE LINE
In the mid-1990s, Sierra Pacific Power Co. constructed 160 miles of 345-kV line from Reno, Nevada, to Alturas, California, using a very similar tubular steel H-frame design. The towers were not designed specifically for helicopter construction, but helicopters were eventually used to construct approximately half of the line due to permitting difficulties and time constraints.
In soils that could be augured, the contractor planned to drill an approximately 13-ft-deep by 5-ft-diameter hole for the tower legs and have the helicopter set the tower into the holes. However, in most locations, sandy soils or a high water table prevented the vertical cut face of the augured hole to remain stable long enough for the helicopter to complete installation. In rocky soils, the holes had to be dug with an excavator and blasted, leaving a large uneven hole that a tower could not be safely placed in without temporary support.
In these difficult soil areas, the contractor chose to dig an oversized hole and install a 5-ft-diameter corrugated metal pipe (CMP). The outside of the CMP was backfilled and compacted, and the towers were placed by helicopter into the CMP. Later, the contractor returned to each tower site to plumb the tower with a crane, and backfill between the CMP and the tower leg with concrete. The procedure proved to be very costly and time-consuming.
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