Power Group Updates

updates from the

The Gardenville Substation wrapped up over the summer. OCE served as the prime contractor for the large 115kV rebuild in Western New York. The project consisted of full site development, including environmental controls, site work, approximately 500 foundations, 38 large-diameter caissons for T-line structures and a new control building. We also performed the full electrical scope which included the complete build-out of a 14 bay breaker and a half station, AC/DC station service, 200 relay/ control panels and associated cabling/terminations, testing/commissioning, relocation of transmission lines and demolition of existing substation and transmission line facilities. The project was completed six months ahead of schedule.

Crews worked through the night in July when a contractor driving a dump truck leaving a paving job at Rush Henrietta High School, located in a suburb of Rochester, struck communications wires with his dump box up, causing 15 poles to come down across the road. O’Connell was called in to handle removing the broken poles and wire, and installing the new ones. Crews were on the scene by 2:00 PM and worked through Monday night. In total, 75 linemen were mobilized with approximately 38 trucks to expedite restoration of the electrical service. The incident garnered nationwide attention after we posted several photos to our social media page.

Hurricane Florence was a powerful and long-lived hurricane that caused severe damage in the Carolinas in September, primarily as a result of freshwater flooding. Florence dropped a total of 36 inches of rain in Elizabethtown, NC, becoming the wettest tropical cyclone recorded in the Carolinas, and also the eighthwettest overall in the contiguous United States. Despite making landfall as a weakened Category 1 hurricane, Florence still had enough wind speed to uproot trees and cause widespread power outages throughout the Carolinas. O'Connell mobilized 172 linemen with 92 distribution trucks for storm response.

In Massachusetts, one of our underground crews is pictured installing a new submersible four-way switch. The work is part of a large underground distribution conversion project designed to upgrade power for the city of Haverhill, MA. Forty six wind turbines were constructed in the town of Arkwright, NY, creating 78.4 megawatts of power – enough to provide 35,000 homes in New York with clean energy each year. O’Connell connected the wind farm to a dual circuit National Grid 115kV transmission corridor. The project included a 5-breaker ring configuration to connect 78.4 MW of wind generation along with a utility-requested line swap to help remedy an existing congested circuit.

To date we have completed over 14,000 pole replacements and have made framing modifications to over 23,000 poles in New York state to make room for new high speed internet. This effort has consumed 112,000 man hours since we started in late 2017.