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[TowerTalk] Fwd: A `Time Bomb' Sits Atop 30,000 Utility Poles In State

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Subject: [TowerTalk] Fwd: A `Time Bomb' Sits Atop 30,000 Utility Poles In State
From: Tom Frenaye <frenaye@direcway.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 23:38:30 -0400
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
>>From courant.com 
>--------------------
>A `Time Bomb' Sits Atop 30,000 Utility Poles In State 
>--------------------
>
>CL&P Removing Porcelain Insulators Prone To Cracking  [CL&P = Connecticut 
>Light & Power]
>
>By DAVID OWENS
>Courant Staff Writer
>
>September 13, 2005
>
>The fire that incinerated four cars and a Dunkin' Donuts restaurant May 7 
>began with a tiny crack in a porcelain insulator high atop a utility pole 
>along Route 4 in Farmington.
>
>Through that crack flowed 23,000 volts of electricity that burned through a 
>wooden cross arm. The wire carrying those 23,000 volts then fell to the 
>ground, touching off the fire.
>
>A cool-headed Dunkin' Donuts manager locked the restaurant's front door and 
>herded customers and employees out the back. Police and firefighters say it 
>was a miracle no one was killed or injured.
>
>At the time, it appeared to be one of those freak accidents that just occurs 
>from time to time.
>
>It wasn't.
>
>The insulator that failed was attached to a protective device called a 
>"cutout" made by A.B. Chance, a division of Hubbell Inc., in Orange, Conn.
>
>There are tens of thousands of cutouts on utility systems. Cutouts halt the 
>flow of electricity if there is a surge, protecting transformers and other 
>electric equipment the same way circuit breakers protect a home.
>
>The Farmington fire was an extreme example of what can happen when a cutout 
>fails. But older cutouts - especially those made by Chance - fail more 
>frequently than other types, according to a utility company study, persuading 
>utility companies around the Northeast, including CL&P, to replace them. 
>Unions representing lineman whose safety depends upon reliable equipment say 
>replacements are not going fast enough. They fear that the older 
>porcelain-insulated cutouts jeopardize public safety.
>
>"They're basically a time bomb that should be aggressively pursued," said John 
>Unikas of Local 420 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, 
>which represents many CL&P line workers.
>
>Unikas said the union complained to CL&P about A.B. Chance porcelain cutouts. 
>The union also complained to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health 
>Administration about an April 20, 2004, incident in Goshen, where a Chance 
>ceramic cutout failed. In that incident, like in Farmington, a cross arm 
>burned, causing a high voltage wire to drop, in this case, onto the wire 
>carrying electricity to a house. It damaged the home's electrical system and 
>some appliances.
>
>Reports of problems with A.B. Chance cutouts seem to be confined to northern 
>climates, and utility officials suspect the freeze-thaw cycle is to blame.
>
>A spokesman for Hubbell Inc. said Monday he was not aware of the Farmington 
>fire, but said the company would investigate.
>
>The spokesman did say trouble with porcelain insulators is an industry problem 
>and not confined to A.B. Chance products. Porcelain insulators are susceptible 
>to cracking because of fluctuations in temperature in cold northern states, 
>Thomas R. Conlin, the company's vice president for public affairs, said.
>
>Utilities in the South do not report such problems, he said.
>
>Porcelain is a very durable material, but the smallest crack can create a 
>problem, Conlin said. "It freezes and then you know what happens," he said.
>
>Utilities in the North are switching to a new kind of cutout that uses a 
>polymer material as the insulator, Conlin and utility company officials said.
>
>Conlin attributed the singling out of A.B. Chance cutouts by some utilities 
>and others to the company's market share. "The odds are when one fails, since 
>A.B. Chance sells a larger number of these than anyone else, it's likely it 
>will be an A.B. Chance cutout," Conlin said.
>
>CL&P says the remaining 30,000-plus A.B. Chance ceramic cutouts on its system 
>are safe. Still, the company is removing them at a pace of about 4,000 a year. 
>An extra $500,000 was allocated to that effort in 2005 as part of a settlement 
>of a federal OSHA complaint brought by the union. The removal program is 
>expected to take years, added CL&P spokeswoman Mary Ingarra. "They're not 
>living up to their [life] expectancy" of about 40 years, she said.
>
>NU is not alone in reporting trouble with Chance cutouts.
>
>The Washington Electric Co-operative in Vermont has termed A.B. Chance 
>porcelain cutouts "lemons" in newsletters sent to its members. And co-op 
>officials in recent years reported failures of A.B. Chance ceramic cutouts as 
>the second leading cause of power outages on its system. Severe weather was 
>No. 1.
>
>Pennsylvania Power & Light, which serves central and northeastern 
>Pennsylvania, is removing A.B. Chance porcelain cutouts from its distribution 
>system.
>
>Dan Weston, engineering and operations director for the Vermont co-op, said he 
>issued his linemen binoculars so that they can carefully inspect A.B. Chance 
>porcelain cutouts before they begin climbing a pole. "By jiggling the pole, 
>this thing can physically break in half," Weston said. "Linemen start to climb 
>a pole and this thing will fall apart and you can have a ball of fire up 
>there."
>
>Not all cutout failures spark fires. Most often, the result is a localized 
>power outage or downed wires. But reliability problems with the A.B. Chance 
>porcelain cutouts have cost utilities money as they buy new cutouts to replace 
>the failed devices and pay line crews to do the work. Weston estimates 
>replacing a faulty A.B. Chance porcelain cutout costs his company $300.
>
>Northeast Utilities - which includes CL&P, Western Massachusetts Electric and 
>Public Service of New Hampshire - determined in May 2001 that the typical 
>failure rate of porcelain cutouts from 1988 to 2001 was 0.12 percent, 
>according to a letter to the Hartford OSHA office from two CL&P managers.
>
>The company study attributed the failure of the porcelain cutouts to cracks in 
>cemented connections to metal hardware as well as cracks in the glazing on the 
>porcelain. The cracks allow moisture to get into the porcelain or the cemented 
>connections. During the freeze-thaw cycle, the cracks widen. The company 
>estimated it would have 500 porcelain cutout failures a year.
>
>"The A.B. Chance porcelain cutouts have experienced a slightly higher failure 
>rate than other brands," the CL&P letter reads. "Northeast Utilities stopped 
>purchasing A.B. Chance cutouts in February of 2001. Approximately 50,000 A.B. 
>Chance devices were in service in 2003. Action has been taken to ensure ... 
>the replacement of existing A.B. Chance porcelain cutouts."
>
>NU replaced the Chance cutouts with porcelain cutouts manufactured by S&C 
>Electric Co., and reliability of those devices has "been consistently high," 
>the letter reads. NU is now installing cutouts with polymer insulators.
>
>The Farmington fire has left Farmington Town Council Chairman Bruce Chudwick 
>wanting to know more about the incident. However, the state agency charged 
>with regulating utilities has opted not to take a closer look at what happened 
>in Farmington on May 7.
>
>"We don't know what caused this, whether there was a storm the day before that 
>could have cracked something," said Beryl Lyons, a state Department of Public 
>Utility Control spokeswoman. "Because there were no fatalities or injuries, we 
>are not obligated to do an investigation."
>
>Chudwick said he was surprised by that response. "We have to wait for someone 
>to get killed or injured before they look at this?" Chudwick said. "This seems 
>like a serious enough incident that it should warrant investigation by DPUC." 
>Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant
>
>
>--------------------
>Visit www.courant.com for Connecticut news updates, sports stories, 
>entertainment listings and classifieds.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
e-mail: frenaye@pcnet.com    YCCC --> http://www.yccc.org/
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444 


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