I’m what we call a Toubleman/Serviceman, I’m still a Lineman but I work by myself most of the time. During the work day I run all over hell and back handling different service calls and responding to outages. Connecting new house services, temporary power for construction sites, disconnects for non-pay, temporary disconnects so a customer can do some work on their side on the meter, and lots and lots of farmers who have issues with their irrigation pumps. Those are just a handful of things I take care of during the day. When I have some downtime I find a crew that is working nearby and give them a hand with their job. I still need to be able to respond to outages, so I can’t be out in the middle of nowhere with no radio or cellphone service. Our company has 3-4 man Crews and 2-Troubleman/Serviceman. We are a small company but our electrical grid is spread waaaayy out. They don’t call it a Rural Electric for nothin’.
One of the crews was right in town working on energizing a new Urgent Care Medical facility. So I swung in to give them a hand and hang out…
It’s going to be powered by a Pad-mounted transformer. After the underground conduits are in we had to build a compacted gravel pad for the concrete transformer pad to sit on. Then the transformer sits on top of the concrete.
Setting the Transformer
This transformer is going to be fed from the overhead powerlines next to the highway. In order to make the transition from overhead wire to under ground, we have to build a Dip-Pole or Riser-Pole. We attach PVC conduit to the side of the pole then pull the cable inside it. Then attach the cable to a fiberglass arm. Then we splice a Primary Outdoor Termination (pothead) on the end of the cable. Then that transition splice is connected to a set of fuses. Above me are the fuse holders called Cut-Outs
This is what the High voltage underground cable looks like
It consists of 5 layers not including the conductor
The PotHead is a cold shrink style PotHead. Back in the day we used to use Heat Shrinks, which utilized a torch to shrink the splice around the cable. The cold shrink’s shape is held my these 2 plastic strips that are spiraled around on the inside.
After the connector is pressed on the end of the cable, you pull the red one out first, place it over the prepared cable then pull the white one.
The splice collapses down and shrinks right around the cable. Then end product will look something like this minus the pull cords and it would be a lot skinnier. This creates a water tight sea around the splice. I didn’t want to waste a splice, I imagine they aren’t cheap. Nothing in this line of work is cheap I swear.
I honestly don’t know what it is but I love working in my hooks. Any chance I get to tool up, I’m on it!! So here I am taking a look around, chillin’, while my partner in the bucket truck grabs a couple things
Once I get working while I’m in my hooks, it’s Go Mode!! Ain’t got time for photos, got work to do. Having built like 1,000 of these, it’s like riding a bike and just like that were done and ready to energize the transformer.
All that’s left is to check that the voltage coming out of the transformer to the customer is the correct voltage. The. We wait for the customer to pull in their service and call for a permanent connect. Then I will come back and connect their service wire to the transformer. Then the new Urgent Care Medical Facility will have electricity.
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