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In the last decade, linemen have installed more than 1 million steel distribution poles. Looking ahead, the number of steel poles going into the ground will continue to climb as electric utilities look to harden their systems, replace aging or damaged poles, and keep up with the need for new infrastructure. When hardening their systems, electric utilities are increasingly converting their distribution systems to steel for a few key reasons. First of all, steel distribution poles are strong and durable, impervious to insects and rot, and are 100% recyclable at the end of their 80-year service lives. Unlike wood, they also do not need chemical preservative treatments, and as such, they don’t create future hazardous waste disposal concerns, according to the (SMDI). Exploring Steel’s Benefits For these reasons, more than 600 electric utility companies nationwide are using steel poles, including Bluebonnet Electric of Bastrop, Texas.
As one of the largest rural electric co-ops in Texas, performed an economic analysis of why more utilities are turning to steel to harden their power distribution systems. Through its research, Bluebonnet discovered steel poles save a utility 10% to 20% in life-cycle costs compared to wood poles. Thomas Ellis, the manager of engineering with Bluebonnet, says the big savings stem from the fact linemen don’t have to go back 30 years after a wood pole has been installed to replace a hard-to-reach pole. While the steel poles may cost more upfront, they last a long time, are resistant to woodpecker damage and require minimal maintenance, making them suitable for remote locations.
Other utilities across North America are considering installing steel poles, as well. For example, San Diego Gas & Electric recently proposed replacing its 69-kV wood pole structures with new weathering steel poles to increase fire safety and service reliability in a high fire risk area of San Diego County. In addition, Tucson Electric Power has been converting large parts of its predominantly wood pole system to steel poles for higher-voltage installations as part of its annual maintenance activities. As a result, the utility replaces 700 to 900 wood poles with steel distribution poles each year. Linemen work as a team to install a steel utility pole at a training center workshop. Training Linemen This increase in steel pole installation is fueling the demand for new training and coursework for students, apprentices and journeymen linemen programs across the country.
As a result, the SMDI has stepped up to support linemen training with hands-on instructional materials developed by industry professionals. In fact, over the last decade, SMDI has helped to educate more than 3,000 students, apprentices and journeymen linemen in learning safe steel pole installation and repair practices. In addition, it has sponsored 83 sessions at 29 lineman training schools, 11 utilities and 10 industry conferences. Three years ago, SMDI connected with industry leaders in utility safety and line work training, including the (ISPC) and (MCC). With this partnership, SMDI has been able to update beginner and advanced materials for students, apprentices and journeymen.
Mack Turner, CUSP, director of operations for ISPC, has worked in the trade, and as such, he understands the need for solid training. ISPC’s mission is to reinforce safety awareness and best practices, and Turner says now that more steel poles are being installed in the field, it’s an opportune time to reinforce safety protocols and procedures in lineman training programs across the board. Rich Newcomer, instructor for MCC’s utility line technical training program, agreed, saying the increase in steel pole installation has caused the college to expand its training program. As a result, MCC is providing students with the appropriate amount of education and situational awareness necessary to work with steel in the line.
“Our philosophy is that we give them real-world experience before they go out in the real world. Today, part of that real world is working with steel poles,” Newcomer says. In addition, SMDI has worked closely with utilities and lineworker associations to bring hands-on training with steel in the mix. For example, SMDI and ISPC have presented steel pole training at the New Mexico Rural Electric Cooperative Superintendents’ Association Overhead Hot Line and Maintenance School in Las Cruces, New Mexico, for the last three years.
This annual field training with steel poles benefits many co-op employees because it teaches them how to handle the materials, says Mike Hughes, school organizer and line superintendent of the Central New Mexico Electric Cooperative. A lineman climbs a galvanized steel pole wearing proper fall protection. Offering Hands-on Instruction In 2001, MCC in Omaha, Nebraska, was among the first lineman training schools to expand its utility line curriculum to include coursework related to steel pole installation and maintenance. This training included one-day sessions with classroom and hands-on field demonstrations. Today, steel pole training is embedded into MCC’s overall program with classroom and hands-on activities alongside wood, concrete and other materials in the regular curriculum. For the first time, utility line students have the opportunity to install and maintain a distribution line with steel poles.
As part of the program, students who have had some basic training in pole climbing and working the trucks are assigned to small crews to build a small de-energized power line that includes both wood and steel poles. The students frame, set and work the poles in the line. When the line is completed, the crews perform routine maintenance such as reconductoring a line, and at a later date, they return to replace a pole. “The purpose of the lineman school and the preapprentice school training is to introduce the students to the trade and provide the tools to get a really good start,” Newcomer says. “That requires a continuously improving curriculum that covers all the equipment and materials they will use as line workers.” To improve and expand its curriculum, MCC regularly works with SMDI.
Recently, Newcomer provided technical direction to SMDI in the development of updated student lineman instructional materials to add to SMDI’s growing lineman training library. All of the materials — videos, reading materials, quizzes and core competencies — are available online and in print to lineman training schools free of charge. Newcomer says the materials are useful to MCC as reinforcement to its curriculum. “I plan to link to the new curriculum through our school’s learning management system,” Newcomer says. “Through this new curriculum, I can have the students work with the online self-study and then reinforce the lessons with hands-on work in our expanded training yard.” Moving forward, SMDI’s primary focus is on embedding steel pole training into regular lineworker curriculum, but currently, periodic lineman training workshops with classroom and hands-on demonstrations are being offered at the top lineman training schools throughout the United States.
This instruction is designed to work in tandem with the new training materials available online. For example, the Southeastern Lineman Training Center (SLTC) in Trenton, Georgia, and Oklahoma State University’s power transmission and distribution programs include expanding classroom curriculum and day/night field work with steel distribution poles. Tim Self, director of safety and specialized training at SLTC, says the new distribution program will help linemen to fine-tune and reinforce safety practices for working with steel poles. “The most critical part of training for line workers is a good scholastic program that gives theory and fundamentals and a strong skills-based curriculum that ensures the students are acquiring the skills as they are taught,” says Self, a utility industry veteran. Because steel distribution poles don’t incur as much damage in harsh weather conditions or storms compared to wood, Self says they are being used more and more because of their resiliency.
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“It is in students’ best interest to learn how to install and repair steel poles in a variety of situations,” Self says. A trained technician installs a removable step into a steel utility pole. Is vice president of construction market development for the Steel Market Development Institute. Editor’s note: New training materials for both de-energized and energized distribution systems and safe work practices are now available through the Steel Market Development Institute.
All materials are available free of charge online at lineman.steel.org. For a copy of the print version, contact Daniel. Power Companies Turn to Steel As more utilities are looking to harden their systems and minimize outages, many are changing out their wood poles with steel structures. For example, Westar Energy was looking for alternative materials to use for some smaller distribution projects. As the largest electric utility company in Kansas with 700,000 customers, Westar was familiar with steel poles, but its operations personnel needed additional information to install and maintain them with confidence. As such, Westar’s Safety and Training Group contacted the SMDI Steel Utility Pole Task Group to inquire about further educational opportunities offered through their organization.
Daniel Snyder, director of business development for SMDI, discussed the resources available for training Westar linemen. Westar is now investing in additional steel poles and has added steel poles to the training yard at its central training facility to allow for ongoing instruction. Farmington Electric Utility System (FEUS) is also investing in steel structures. Owned and operated by the City of Farmington in northwest New Mexico, the utility has a service territory of 1,718 sq miles with about 2,300 miles of 15-kV distribution lines and 220 miles of 115-kV transmission lines. Until recently, FEUS lines have been 100% wood construction, and the utility spends approximately $500,000 on pole maintenance.
When a neighboring utility’s wood poles were taken out of service by a severe storm, cutting power to more than 30,000 customers, Farmington took a more focused look at system reliability and the potential of steel. For educational purposes, Valmont hosted a lineman training class focused on working with steel utility poles for FEUS and neighboring utilities. During the training, crews replaced a steel pole in an energized setting. Linemen Learn How to Work on Live and De-energized Steel Infrastructure With more requests for advanced training from investor-owned, cooperatives and municipal utilities, SMDI embarked on a mission to offer advanced, comprehensive training materials for journeyman and apprentice linemen. SMDI worked closely with ISPC and T&D PowerSkills to expand their considerable library of training materials to include energized distribution training focusing on steel poles. The new training materials ISPC developed in concert with SMDI, which include a series of videos and corresponding curriculum, help to illustrate the similarities and subtle differences between steel and wood, as well as the benefits of using steel in a power distribution system. Lineman training programs are typically aligned in two categories: de-energized, primarily for students in training, and energized.
SMDI now offers training materials in both categories. Energized Training The energized steel pole training materials for working on energized distribution systems and safe work practices are available in a kit that includes a training manual, a DVD and a USB flash drive. This material was developed in cooperation with the Steel Market Development Institute, the Institute of Safety in Powerline Construction and T&D PowerSkills, LLC.
The program covers the following topics:. An overview of steel poles as distribution system structures. Joining multiple-section steel poles. Framing and setting steel poles, de-energized. Climbing steel poles.
Energized line work, part I. Energized line work, part II.
Additional considerations (basic insulation level) De-Energized Training The de-energized materials, directed primarily at students enrolled in lineman training programs in the United States, were created by SMDI working in concert with lineman training instructors. This effort was spearheaded by Rich Newcomer, lineman training director at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Nebraska. An instructor’s kit is available online and in print, and includes a program outline, core competencies, student reading materials, quizzes for each topic, and a companion video available in DVD and by individual chapters online. Topics covered include safety; climbing, drilling, framing and installing steel poles; field deployment of steel poles; and an overview of steel poles, including fabrication and galvanizing.
Anyone who has ever climbed a pole or opened a switch knows about safety. Linemen wear rubber gloves, hard hats and steel-toed boots. Apprentices learn the correct way to do the work. These safety values and skills are slowly absorbed as hundreds of hours are spent working alongside journeymen linemen in storms, on night calls, and in routine maintenance and construction assignments. When linemen top out as journeymen, they are trained, skilled and knowledgeable to do their work safely. They know the right way to perform each and every job. Linemen are physically fit and mentally tough, too.
They spend their days in all types of conditions, from extreme heat to sleet and snow, and from hot dry pavement to wet and slippery mud. If push comes to shove, they can hoist a 50-kVA tub with a couple of men and a set of blocks. The question remains: Why do men and women in the line trade still get hurt and unfortunately even killed?
Reflecting on my own career and incidents that I had witnessed as a journeymen lineman, a supervisor and safety professional for a Midwestern utility, I found a pattern. I discovered a space between what we know is right and the choice we sometimes make.
Unfortunately, these choices sometimes lead to mistakes, incidents and injuries. The following are five keys to managing your space between to ensure you and your coworkers go home safe each day. Use tools in the proper manner A couple of years ago, a line worker was in the air drilling holes to frame a pole. A strong wind blew wood chips right into his face.
Although he called for additional eye protection, which was in the truck bin, he continued drilling, using his hand as a shield instead. The crew spent the rest of the afternoon in the emergency room flushing his eyes. If linemen know anything, it's how to improvise, which can be both a strength and a weakness. Improvising with tools, or stopping short of using the right tool for the job, leads to incidents and injury. It's just a matter of time. The little things matter Who really needs a wheel chock? One day a crew was unloading a backyard machine from a trailer hooked to a one-ton pickup.
Next to the trailer was a piece of wood, which someone kicked under the trailer as a wheel chock. As the linemen walked the yard machine off the trailer, the weight shifted and the whole rig slid down the hill. Everyone scattered like a flock of birds as the unit sailed through a yard and rested against a tree. Fortunately, no one was hurt by the runaway equipment, but it could have led to a serious injury for a crew member or the public. By the way, the wheel chock was on the trailer, but the crew opted not to use it. Little things, as you know, can make a big difference.
Take the time it takes Since some linemen are in the air all day every day, being 10 ft or 15 ft in the air may seem like standing on the ground. I remember one time a lineman was working in a substation and needed to remove a set of grounds. He couldn't break the ground loose with the shotgun stick, so he climbed off of the ladder onto the top of a transformer.
He was about 12 ft in the air and didn't take the 10 seconds to go back down and get his harness. He thought he didn't need fall protection, because he would only be at the high elevation for a short time. With leather gloves, he used a screwdriver to break the ground lead free. When he removed the ground, he was immediately shocked by induction voltage. Opel astra f workshop manual free download. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it knocked him off the transformer.
He fell head first, his body hit the ground and everything went black. When he finally woke up, he spent several months in the hospital and endured several surgeries. He was fortunate enough to make a recovery, but others aren't quite so lucky.
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Safety only takes seconds, but injuries last forever. Wear personal protective equipment Along with fall protection, linemen may believe personal protective equipment (PPE) is optional, but it's not. For example, when hooking up a service, rules require that a lineman wears a hard hat, safety glasses, a harness and low-voltage rubber gloves. One day, I stopped one of my troublemen, who wasn't wearing any of his PPE except eye protection. I called him down and asked why. “Son,” he told me, “I've been doing this since before you were born. I know what to do and when to do it.” Many linemen have developed a bulletproof mentality that an accident can't happen to them and PPE is not needed.
Since we cannot predict when and where an incident can happen, PPE should always be mandatory. Tailgate Every day, call the crew together, identify what hazards are out there, what can hurt you and what safety rules apply to the work at hand. In addition, stop throughout the day to make sure everyone is still on the same page. I remember when I was an apprentice, an old salty foreman would call everyone together every day to discuss job hazards. We would review the job, identify hazards and discuss the right way to get the work done. At the end of the tailgate, he would add, “And one last thing, no one gets hurt today.” That still echoes in my head: “No one gets hurt today.” Linemen work around high-voltage lines, dangerous heights and extreme hazards, yet sometimes fall into the trap of thinking they're immune to injury. By taking shortcuts, however, linemen can put their lives on the line.
Following the basic safety rules will help linemen protect themselves and their coworkers in the field and make the line trade a safer occupation for everyone. Matthew Forck , a journeyman lineman and certified safety professional, directs K-Crof Industries, LLC, an organization specializing in safety keynote presentations, training and safety consulting services. Download free safety tools.