Working together to keep the lights on

When we talk about reli­a­bil­i­ty at York Elec­tric, a lot of that work hap­pens behind the scenes, long before an out­age even occurs. A recent project at our Oakridge Sub­sta­tion is a great exam­ple of how proac­tive main­te­nance and a strong part­ner­ship with New Hori­zon Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive (NHEC) helps keep our sys­tem safe and depend­able.

NHEC is con­sid­ered a gen­er­a­tion and trans­mis­sion coop­er­a­tive that focus­es sole­ly on the trans­mis­sion side of YEC’s sys­tem. They own the sub­sta­tion itself and the land it sits on, and they are respon­si­ble for the “high-side” equip­ment that feeds pow­er from the trans­mis­sion lines and into the sub­sta­tion. This includes com­plex and often expen­sive equip­ment such as trans­form­ers, meter stands and break­ers. As a dis­tri­b­u­tion coop­er­a­tive, York Elec­tric owns and main­tains the “low-side” equip­ment, such as reclosers and reg­u­la­tors, that feeds pow­er into the cir­cuits that trans­port pow­er from the sub­sta­tion to your home or busi­ness.

“At its core, this part­ner­ship is an exam­ple of the coop­er­a­tive mod­el at work. Coop­er­a­tives help coop­er­a­tives so we can con­tin­ue deliv­er­ing the ser­vice you expect each day.”

NHEC crews recent­ly were con­duct­ing rou­tine right-of-way and pole inspec­tions near Oakridge Sub­sta­tion, sim­i­lar to the work our own crews do. Dur­ing this inspec­tion, they iden­ti­fied a pole that need­ed to be replaced. Because of its loca­tion on a trans­mis­sion line feed­ing into the sub­sta­tion, the safest option was to tem­porar­i­ly deen­er­gize the line to com­plete the work.

While the trans­mis­sion line was offline, NHEC took advan­tage of the oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­plete inspec­tions that can only be done with the equip­ment deen­er­gized. Their crews changed out the need­ed parts on the sub­sta­tion trans­former and com­plet­ed the nec­es­sary test­ing. Dur­ing the test­ing, they dis­cov­ered an issue with a bush­ing, a crit­i­cal com­po­nent of the sta­tion trans­former. If the bush­ing had failed unex­pect­ed­ly, it could have caused sig­nif­i­cant dam­age, pos­si­bly even requir­ing a replace­ment trans­former val­ued at approx­i­mate­ly $1 mil­lion and a sig­nif­i­cant and extend­ed out­age.

Instead, NHEC dis­cov­ered the issue ear­ly and worked with YEC to plan a tem­po­rary out­age for around 1,550 mem­bers to de-ener­gize the sta­tion again so that repairs could be com­plet­ed. While out­ages are nev­er con­ve­nient, the work com­plet­ed dur­ing these short win­dows helps our mem­bers avoid longer, dis­rup­tive out­ages down the road.

That proac­tive approach is exact­ly why New Hori­zon exists. Formed near­ly three decades ago to sup­port the Upstate’s five dis­tri­b­u­tion coop­er­a­tives, the part­ner­ship has evolved along­side our indus­try to allow us to deliv­er safe, afford­able and reli­able pow­er. Today, New Hori­zon sup­ports York Elec­tric with every­thing from sub­sta­tion main­te­nance, out­age respons­es and access to spe­cial­ized equip­ment and tech­nol­o­gy, help­ing us keep safe­ty and reli­a­bil­i­ty at the fore­front.

At its core, this part­ner­ship is an exam­ple of the coop­er­a­tive mod­el at work. Coop­er­a­tives help coop­er­a­tives so we can con­tin­ue deliv­er­ing the ser­vice you expect each day.