During the moderate weather of springtime in southern Nevada, energy demand is usually fairly low in the OPD5 territory. Even so, there is no time for the OPD5 crews to rest. Rather, the spring season is a busy time for the district’s substation operations team. This group of about a half-dozen technicians is hard at work getting ready for the peak summer loads that are on the way in just a few weeks.
“This is the time of year when the power loads are down,” explained Substation Operations Manager Keven Hansen. “So we can actually de-energize equipment and do some work on it without taxing our system. It is an opportunity for us to do a lot of housekeeping and planning in advance of the summer season.”
The substation team has been taking a close look at the loading data from last summer’s peak period. In doing this, they try to make projections about any switching changes that might be needed to improve how the OPD5 system is fed.
“We look at the system as a whole and try to balance it out to where it is not overloading anywhere when things get busy,” Hansen said. “For the most part, we pretty much know where the loads will be and we can make arrangements for that as best we can.”
But even with all of this planning, the crew must always be ready to make quick changes as needed when the hot months come. That is because the loads can shift significantly from one summer to another.
“For example, we might have a situation where someone in a neighborhood somewhere gets a Tesla,” Hansen said. “They are talking to the neighbors about their new car, and all of a sudden there are several Teslas popping up in the same neighborhood. They have each had high capacity chargers installed in their garages since last summer. Suddenly, there is this big load in that one neighborhood that we have to supply. So we always have to be prepared to shift things around on the fly, to suit whatever is needed.”
The springtime is also the season for the team to perform a whole punch list of maintenance items that have been identified as needed in the substations.
For example, the exterior shells of transformers at certain substations had become rather weathered over time. This was the case at the Pulsipher Substation in Mesquite and the Whipple Substation in Logandale.
“I don’t know if it is the sun or the wind that wears the paint down on those things,” Hansen said. “But we were down to bare metal in a lot of spots.”
With power demand relatively low at this time of year, OPD5 staff can de-energize each transformer so that any rust that has accumulated can be sanded off. The surfaces were then cleaned, reprimed, and re-painted.
“They look completely different now, much better!” Hansen said. “We just want to have our equipment last as long as it possibly can.”
What’s more, while each transformer is de-energized for painting, the crew took the opportunity to run a whole bank of tests on each one,
as well as all of the associated equipment. Then they performed any necessary maintenance that was identified in the tests. This extensive process can take the crew about two weeks for each transformer.
“There is a lot of ground to cover for our substation crew at this time of the year,” Hansen said. “But addressing all of these things now, when the loads are low, will contribute to us having a safer, more reliable system for our customers when the temperatures start to heat up. I appreciate the work that these guys do.”