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Michigan
Country Lines, January/February 1994
"The
insulator inspection and maintenance program has had more immediate
impact on service reliability than any other program I have ever
adopted," Frank Talentino, Operations Manager.
Two years ago, Cloverland was experiencing a high number of "blinking
lights" and "radio interference" complaints. These
complaints are more commonly referred to as "nuisance complaints".
They are a nuisance to the member and a nuisance to your cooperative
because they are hard to locate. In addition to the complaints,
Operations Manager Frank Talentino also noticed a significant
increase in the number of insulator failures and breaker operations.
This, coupled with the difficulty in locating the problems causing
breaker operations led Talentino to believe that faulty insulators
might be the cause.
Equipped
with a Hi-Test detection instrument, Talentino started his "mission"
of testing, inspecting and replacing insulators. Now, nearly two
years later Talentino confirms that, "Inspections have been
completed in five substations and partial inspections and replacements
have been made in seven other substation areas." A total
of 1,647 miles of distribution line has been inspected and defective
insulators replaced.
What
have we found? "Cracks, pinholes and a deterioration of the
bonding between the pin and the insulator," said Talentino.
The majority of the problem was detected in the bonding area of
the insulators. "Most defects are non-visible from ground
level and the insulators replaced were installed on dead-end structures
and the remainder on running corners."
"Cracks,
pinholes and a deterioration of the bonding between the pin and
the insulation are being found," said Talentino.
Since
the insulator inspection and replacement program was implemented,
Cloverland has noticed a considerable improvement in service and
reduction in operating costs. Some of the actual and anticipated
improvements in service costs include:
- 1.
Reduction in outages caused by defective insulators.
- 2.
A reduction in radio interference complaints.
- 3.
A substantial reduction in "blinking light" complaints
from membership.
- 4.
A reduction in the number of damaged, dead-end and running corner
structures.
- 5.
A substantial reduction in the number of breaker operations,
thus, eliminating numerous timely and costly trouble complaint
calls on the part of the cooperative's staff.
- 6.
In time, it is anticipated operating costs will be reduced because
of a reduction in member complaints, outages and repair to damaged
structures.
- 7.
In time, it is anticipated Cloverland will see a reduction in
overall system line loss. Summarized below are annual losses
covering the period 1990 through 1993 for distribution, transmission
and substation:
-
-
Year |
Losses |
1990 |
10.42% |
1991 |
10.05% |
1992 |
9.96% |
1993 |
9.64% |
Talentino,
operations manager for 30 years, and employed by the cooperative
for 44 years has implemented many operations and maintenance programs
over the years. According to Talentino, the insulator inspection
and maintenance program has had more immediate impact on the improvement
of service reliability than any other program he has ever adopted
in the past. To date we have replaced 1,772 insulators and we
have dramatically decreased our number of member complaints.
Copyright
© 2000 HD Electric Company
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