OPD5 substation crews were hard at work earlier this month completing a monthly routine that improves service reliability for all local customers.
Each month, this detail-oriented team fans out across the OPD5 territory to perform detailed inspections of some of the most vital components in the system.
One particular morning found OPD5 Substation Technicians Shane Robison and Jared Klunker out doing one of these inspections. With an electronic tablet in hand, Klunker followed a detailed checklist that involved a careful examination of nearly every square inch of the substation being inspected. They combed through the equipment looking for any signs of damage or disrepair.
Using a special infrared camera, Klunker examined every connection point, switch, relay, and component. This special camera scans for hot spots which show up as a dark area on the device’s display screen. A hot spot indicates that there might be stress on vital components at that location. Such issues can then be addressed by making adjustments, doing repairs, or replacing equipment.
“Once a connection starts to heat up, it is likely that something is bound to fail,” explained Robison. “It might be tomorrow or it could be months from now; you just don’t know. But we like to take a proactive approach and find these things before they can cause a problem.”
With a practiced eye, Robison and Klunker also looked for any signs of damage done to equipment – whether by wildlife, weathering, or vandalism.
“We check for any signs of things like mice chewing through cable or birds building nests in the equipment,” Robison said. “We have even seen instances of ring-tailed cats or desert foxes climbing up into the equipment. That is never good.”
The weather and the climate can also take its toll. The intensity of the sun over time can do damage to the intricate electrical components. So watching for that kind of weathering is also important in getting out ahead of problems.
Of course, any signs of theft or tampering are observed, reported, and addressed during the inspection. The crews also take a close look at the extensive security systems at each facility to make sure they are functioning properly.
OPD5 has a team of technicians who, every month, make their way through similar detailed checklists for components all across the system. The territory these inspections cover is vast with equipment scattered across more than 2,000 square miles of area. There are a host of different substations to inspect each month as well as a couple of key switchyards and a handful of other remote sites containing vital equipment.
OPD5 Substation Operations Manager Keven Hansen stated that the extensive travel, and the careful attention to minute detail, has been worth the effort. The inspections have detected many issues and given the crews an opportunity to address them early.
“The whole reason that we do these inspections is to find little issues before they become a big problem,” said Hansen. “It is much easier for us to fix a problem in a controlled situation where we can switch loads and avoid an outage than it is to wait and deal with it in an emergency. We appreciate our crews for their careful and diligent approach to these inspections. They really do add to the reliability of the OPD5 system.”