October 2007
Global Viewpoint
Critics, Gripers and Slackers
Low Achievers Tend to Hide Their Lack of Drive by Criticizing Others, whether muttering under their breath against those above them or belittling out...
Features
Crossing The Tacoma Narrows
Every Once in a While We Get to do Something Memorable. To a transmission line engineer, that memorable event may be designing an extraordinarily long...
Campus Distribution Makes the Grade
The Need for a Reliable, Robust Electrical System to Meet the Vast Requirements of a Major University is Paramount. The University of California, Santa...
Silicon Valley Power Puts Customers First
Being a Municipal Electric Utility is Like Being a Member of a Special Fraternity. The responsibility for electric power is a community responsibility,...
EDF Energy Identifies High-Risk Cable Sections
The Development of a Robust On-line Partial-Discharge (PD) Monitoring Technique has Prompted EDF Energy to perform routine on-line mapping tests on its...
Fog Deters Birds From High-Voltage Roost
Nuisance Bird Species Congregate and Roost in Electric Substations. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG San Francisco, California, U.S.), like many American...
On-Line Monitor Tracks Transformer Health
It is Not Uncommon for Bus Fault-Current Levels to Exceed 30 kA. Large power transformers, especially older ones with windings not braced for this fault-current...
BUSINESSDevelopments
DTE Energy, EDD Collaborate with Others to Test New Power-Delivery Technologies
Already under way, the first part of an initiative to study and test the feasibility of integrating new power-delivery technologies into the power distribution...
FERC Approves TXU Buyout
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has authorized the transfer of jurisdictional assets owned by Oncor Electric Delivery and TXU Wholesale...
NYPA President Pledges Cooperation with Municipal Electric Systems
The New York Power Authority's (NYPA) new president and CEO, Roger B. Kelley, says he is committed to working with the state's municipal electric systems...
Psymetrix Receives Transpower Contract
Transpower New Zealand Ltd. has awarded Psymetrix Ltd. (Edinburgh, Scotland) a contract for the supply of its StormMinder power dynamics management (PDM)...
ITC Midwest Gets Approval to Purchase IPL Transmission Assets in Iowa
ITC Midwest, LLC has received verbal approval from the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) to purchase the transmission assets of Interstate Power and Light Co....
Quanta Services Acquires InfraSource
Quanta Services Inc.'s (Houston, Texas, U.S.) acquisition of InfraSource Services is now complete. Through an all-stock merger, InfraSource Services is...
ABB Wins Offshore Wind Farm Order
German Utility E.ON Netz GmbH has awarded ABB (Zurich, Switzerland) an order worth more than US$400 million to supply the power equipment that will integrate...
Letters to the Editor
I had the pleasure of working as a contractor/consultant for a couple of years before working for a Midwest IOU, and can appreciate both aspects of your...
TECHNOLOGYupdates
ENERGEX Increases Network Performance with OSM Installations
Beginning in the 2003/04 financial year, ENERGEX (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) installed approximately 50 NOJA Power OSM automatic circuit reclosers...
LOCWELD Supplies Towers for AEP's 765-kV Project
When American Electric Power (AEP; Columbus, Ohio, U.S.) selected a lattice tower supplier for its ground-breaking 90-mile (145-km), 6-conductor bundle...
City of Anaheim Deploys Advanced Control Systems Outage Management System in Support of Smart-Grid Strategy
The City of Anaheim Public Utilities (Anaheim, California, U.S.) has completed the production deployment of the Advanced Control Systems' (ACS; Atlanta,...
Western Energizes First Segment of 80-Mile Transmission Line Upgrade
The Western Area Power Administration (Western) has energized the first 20-mile (32-km) segment of an 80-mile (129-km) transmission line upgrade. The...
Malaysia's Largest Electricity Utility Selects Itron Software for AMR Initiative
Itron Inc. (Liberty Lake, Michigan, U.S.), in collaboration with its business associate in Malaysia, Impianas Sdn Bhd, has entered into a contract with...
Prysmian to Build HVDC Submarine Link for Spain's REE
Red Electrica de Espaa (REE) has awarded Prysmian Cables & Systems a contract for the design, supply and construction of a high-voltage dc submarine link...
CHARACTERSwithCharacter
Insulator Man
Some People Just Won't Take No for an Answer. Fortunately, Chris Hedges, owner of Christopher C. Hedges Co., an electrical contracting firm in Kansas...
PRODUCTS&Services
Products & Services
Handheld Vibration Analyzer The VSA-2215 SiteConnex Vibration Spectrum Analyzer and Collaboration system from Datastick Systems Inc. combines a handheld...
StraightTALK
Eisenhower Got It Right!
Aging Infrastructure, Congestion, Cost-Recovery Impediments, Siting Difficulties and National Security Concerns were all issues President Dwight D. Eisenhower...
Electric Utility Operations
Robert Blessin
Born in 1961 and raised on a farm in Holstein, Nebraska. Married to wife, Lisa, for 25 years and has two sons, Justin and Zachary. Recently completed...
Seven Ways to Protect Crews from a Fall
In my 24 years with Kansas City Power & Light (KCP Kansas City, Missouri), we haven't had any accidents with our fall-protection work, which says a lot...
Fall Protection for Substation Transformers
In early 2006, the Colorado Springs Utilities' (SU; Colorado Springs, Colorado) safety and health department reviewed a new fall-protection mast for the...
Cable-Splicing Certification
Power blackouts and facility downtime are intolerable in today's economy where electricity is a necessity. The utility power-distribution system is exceedingly...
