The Hartford Courant reports on the increasing failures of underground transformers and powerlines around the state. Last summer Stamford suffered outages attributed to failing transformers. More recently an electric worker was killed in Waterbury performing routine maitenance work. From The Courant:
The state’s two largest electricity providers, Connecticut Light & Power Co. and United Illuminating, both have multimillion-dollar projects under way to replace and upgrade equipment above and below ground.
Officials from both companies said Thursday that demand for more electricity is driving the projects, although aging equipment is also a concern.
“Reliability is our primary issue,” said Mitch Gross, a CL&P spokesman. “When customers flip the switch, they expect the power to be there, so we need to continually take the steps necessary to ensure it is.”
Modern life has certainly introduced increased demand. Computers, multi installations of televisions in the same household, cell phones and ipods recharging all contribute to the demand. For each tear down of a typical 1500 sq foot home, replaced with 3 and 4 thousand sq foot homes adds to the increase in demand. More space to heat, light and cool, even though Connecticut’s population is actually declining. Businesses contribute as well, with the the typical office worker now using more electrical devices whether they are computers or digital phones.
CL&P has almost 22,500 miles of distribution lines - about 5,600 miles of which are underground, primarily in urban areas - and almost 276,400 transformers in the 149 towns and cities it serves.
It has a $3 billion, multiyear project in the works for everything from trimming trees around power lines to upgrading transformers and substations.
Since July, underground explosions and equipment failures have caused outages in Stamford, Meriden, Hartford and Waterbury.
In October, a spliced wire in an underground cable in downtown Waterbury caught fire and caused an explosion that rattled windows, knocked out power, sent a manhole cover flying 30 feet into the air and destroyed a car.
CL&P plans to spend about $10 million over the next three years to replace the downtown power grid, which includes about six miles of cable and 24 transformers.
The costs of all these upgrades is yet another contributor to rising electrical rates. Conservation could offset the spike in demand. Even Walmart has focused on reducing energy demand by encouraging consumers to purchase compact fluorescent lightbulbs.
Source: Heavy power demand pushing underground equipment to its limits, The Courant, February 23, 2007, Associated Press
