A Day With A Lineman # 15 Getting Power to The Pumps

It’s that time of year again, all the big farmers getting new and old pumps geared up for growing season.

Lets get some Poles in the Ground!

Got the pole trailer loaded up with 5- 40 foot poles and 1- 45 foot pole. The 40 foot poles are for the line goin to the new pump and the 45 foot pole is the pole we will use to tap off the main line with to supple electricity to the new pump. That pole will be set between wires energized at 14,400 volts so that means a little…

Hot-sticking Today

After getting all the poles for the new tap to the new pump in the ground, we started working on getting the energized wires spread so we could get the new tap pole set between the 2 existing poles.

This requires a little Hot Work

Using specially designed fiberglass sticks with all kinds of different attachments, we untie the wire from the 2 adjacent poles and spread them out to our hot/spreader arms.

Remind you these wires are still energized at 14,400 volts. So no customers lost power to their homes. Everything we use to handle the energized conductor is tested every year, and inspected before each use.

By spreading the wire, this creates a big “hole” where we can set the new pole between the energized conductors.

Just Sneak the Pole Right Up In There

After the new tap pole is set, we go back to moving the wire back to the poles from our hot arms. While at the same time tieing them into our new pole.

INCOMING!

I was the one tieing the wire to the new pole. With these new insulators we just started getting it can be done with one person. They are pretty awesome. I will have to show you guys sometime.

After all that we strung in wire to the new pump and it was time to call it a day. A productive day it was.

These farmers will be very happy when these new pumps come online tomorrow.

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