Electric Co-op Today

An electric cooperative in Alaska has moved all of its transmission and distribution lines below ground. Co-op officials are hailing the accomplishment as a huge step toward improved reliability for their consumer-members.

Journeyman lineworker Jeff Field is among the last of Cordova Electric Cooperative’s lineworkers doing overhead work, now that the co-op’s lines are all underground. (Photo By: Cordova Electric Cooperative)

“We completed the project Sept. 14,” said Clay Koplin, chief executive officer of Cordova Electric Cooperative. “Since then, we’ve had a series of storms hit our area and the results indicate we made a good investment.”

The co-op has not suffered a single weather-related outage on its system since the last of the underground lines were energized. That includes an Oct. 31 storm that drenched the community with nine inches of rain in 24 hours.

“Winds gusted to 70 mph, but there were no outages on our system, so it was just another day of bad weather,” Koplin said.

“We have about 70 line-miles of high voltage, and about the same amount of low voltage or service class wire,” he added. “We estimate that in today’s dollars, the costs of replacing 150 miles of distribution and transmission line was in the $30 to $40 million range.”

Members of the co-op’s board approved plans for the project 35 years ago. Construction of the first sections began in 1978, and has continued on a seasonal basis for decades.

“This is not only great for system reliability for our consumer-members, but it is also good for the region’s economic stability,” Koplin said.

Seafood processing plants served by the co-op depend on power for refrigeration and other equipment, Koplin said. “Even a short outage in the summer can idle hundreds of production workers and jeopardize the plants’ highly perishable products.”

Now that co-op construction crews have completed their underground work, some staffers are facing what could be the last pole work of their careers, at least in their home co-op territory, Koplin said. “We’ll be removing overhead lines this winter, once the ground freezes.”

Tags: Power Lines, Power Supply, Transmission and Distribution