When I went to work for Hoosier Energy in 1969, I was an auxiliary operator at the Ratts Generating Station on the White River, located about 40 miles north of Evansville, and later became a control operator. I have been involved in the relay side of the business for more than 31 years and joined the meter-relay team a few years ago. I have watched our power supply system grow extensively. We have more than 1400 miles of transmission lines (69 kV, 138 kV, 161 kV and 345 kV), our service territory includes 48 central and southern Indiana counties, and we are interconnected with seven other major utilities in Indiana and neighboring states.

Hoosier Energy (Bloomington, Indiana) has been supplying power to its members since 1949. The generation and transmission cooperative provides wholesale power and services to 17 member rural electric distribution cooperatives in central and southern Indiana. It operates two baseload power production facilities and a 174-MW peaking plant. A second peaking facility is under construction.

Equipment Advancements

Without advancements in electronics and computers, we could never keep up with the needs of testing and maintaining our meter and relay systems. I work in the meter-relay department with six other technicians. Our job is to ensure power is reliably delivered and accurately measured. We also are responsible for power line protection, as well as annual and scheduled repairs and maintenance of the meters. The substations take care of the relays, but our job involves testing and upgrades of the relays.

As you can imagine, with 14 primary substations and more than 200 distribution substations and delivery points throughout the system, we have an assortment of meters and relay systems to check. Regulations vary from state to state, but in Indiana, we are required to test and inspect our meters on an annual basis. Depending on the condition of the substation, they may have to be checked more often.

As a foreman, my day generally begins at 6 a.m. in Bloomington, when I check in with Power Delivery Services Manager Phil Johnson to see if there are any problems that demand immediate attention. If there are no emergencies, the other meter-relay technicians and I head out to a handful of more than 240 substations or delivery points to test equipment on the system. It is a never-ending cycle.

Computers in the Field

On a typical day — if there is such a thing — the technician arrives at a substation site equipped with a laptop computer, a test set and several tote bags containing an assortment of cables and wires. We started using computers in the early 1990s. This has eliminated most of the paperwork, especially for relay testing. A software program called ProTesT is loaded on our laptops. Because power load varies, relays are inspected for accuracy under a variety of loads, including fault conditions. Ground faults, for example, can produce drastic changes in current flow or a total interruption of a circuit, which can cause a meter to malfunction.

As we perform relay tests that simulate line-fault conditions, the performance levels are recorded on the computer. This information is stored and taken back to the office where we download it to the company's local area network (LAN). Relay engineers, management or anyone who needs to can then look at the test results on the LAN.

These meter-relay procedures are light-years ahead of the way it was done before computers, when we hooked up mechanical relays to testing equipment and made changes by hand. This was time consuming, sometimes requiring us to stay at one substation for several weeks or months. Now, most tests are completed in a few hours.

Metering Tests

Meter tests also are done onsite where we check the accuracy of the meters and proper performance of the meters. The meter-relay tech carries with him binders that contain data information on the specific meters and relays to be tested. Paperwork is kept on each meter filed by station name and equipment number.

Another part of the meter-tech's job, which takes up a large portion of the time at each site, is servicing the metering and relay equipment. Every four years, we perform a comprehensive check of each piece of equipment throughout the system. Scheduled replacement or upgrading of equipment also is done at this time. In some cases, a technician may spend several weeks at a particular substation, testing, replacing and refurbishing network meters and relay equipment.

Road Warriors

Testing meters and relays on a system that covers 15,000 sq miles can mean spending 20 to 30 nights a year away from home. Almost everyone would rather be home with their families, but the fact that the meter-relay department is a close-knit group with many long-time Hoosier Energy employees helps.

In addition, the work varies from day to day. After the August 2003 power outage, the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) set out new reliability guidelines. We were required to install additional security system improvements. Everyone, including the meter-tech team, was involved in successfully updating our entire system in a short period of time.

The most enjoyable part of the meter-relay tech's job is seeing results. It involves finding an anomaly, diagnosing the problem and correcting the anomaly. A typical call recently involved a 69-kV gas circuit breaker. It was closing at the breaker, but we had to figure out why it wasn't working right on the system. Something wouldn't let it close. We went in, found a relay that wasn't properly supervising the closing of the breaker and fixed it. That's the part of the job that gives you a sense of accomplishment. You can immediately see the results of your work and can be proud of what you've done.

Mother of Invention

With more than 240 distribution substations and delivery points to visit, you encounter something different every day. That makes being a meter-relay tech interesting. Every substation has a different group of people who are great to work with. They are always showing us new ways of doing their jobs safer and better. A good example of this came from Denny Moore, a substation mechanic at one of our sites.

Since 1999, Hoosier Energy has invested more than $90 million in new substations, lines and upgrades to existing power delivery facilities. In 2003 alone, we invested a total of $17 million in transmission system improvements and additions. With each new substation installation or refurbishing, crewmembers are required to test the connecting line to the substation. This procedure includes testing the energized cable at primary line voltage. Obviously, the connecting cables cannot touch the ground. In order to complete the testing, a crew must clamp the cable to an insulated hot stick and hold it in the air. This procedure is safe, but it is not the most efficient way to test cables. It also ties up several people until the test is completed. Moore had a better idea.

His idea was to build a portable, insulated stand to suspend the cable while it is being tested. Moore took the idea to Training and Safety Instructor Ron Taylor, a former lineman who was aware of the clamping procedure and the labor-intensive drawbacks. He knew immediately that Moore had a good idea.

Suspending Energized Cable

The “parking stand,” as it is called, consists of a four-legged structure made of insulated fiberglass with a wire baskets hanging from a horizontal insulated stick. The baskets can hold several cables at once, allowing the test to be completed faster, and the human contact factor is completely taken out of the process. It makes the cable testing faster, more efficient and safer.

Sometimes this is the way new tools and equipment come into existence. They say that “necessity is the mother of invention,” but sometimes efficiency can be as strong a motivator. In this case, an operations crew member saw a need and created a tool to fill it.

The parking stand has been such a good invention that telecommunications and electric utility equipment supplier A.B. Chance built six prototypes for use at various Hoosier Energy substations. Some suggestions have been made about the height and size of the wire basket, which A. B. Chance has incorporated into a production version of the mobile cable-parking stand. The stand is now available to others in the industry.

With seven meter techs covering more than 48 countries, it is hard to keep track of every new idea, but that is what makes our jobs enjoyable.

Conclusion

Hoosier Energy has made major commitments to power delivery for central and southern Indiana cooperative consumers. This commitment is equaled only by Hoosier Energy's people in the field who, on a daily basis, make sure the system is working properly. With more than 4100 acres of transmission line corridors and 1400 miles of high-voltage transmission line to maintain, it is a daunting task. But the close-knit working groups and an atmosphere for listening to new ideas encourage excellence.

Jerry Scales has been with Hoosier Energy for more than 35 years. He started his tenure with the power supply cooperative at the Ratts Generating Station as an auxiliary operator and then a control operator. In 1989, he moved to the meter-relay department and currently holds the position of working foreman. jscales@hepn.com

Alison Grant is communications specialist for Hoosier Energy and is based in Bloomington, Indiana. She has been with Hoosier Energy since April 2003. agrant@hepn.com