Transmission & Distribution World

Our industry has a history of pulling together in times like these. Of course our linemen and tree trimmers are on the front lines doing battle with downed conductor and splintered poles. And I am so proud of every one of them. But we have so many heroes to be thankful for, from the guys who pitch the tents to the cooks who work 20 hour days to make the meals. So many things have to come together. I met so many people who were working their storm assignments whether in Lufkin, Livingston, Houston or Galveston. Each utility had and worked their response approach plans, whether Oncor, Sam Houston Electric Cooperative or CenterPoint Energy. I talked with inspectors, dispatchers, foremen; call center operators. Everyone pitched in. And I saw utility linemen from all over the country who set aside their day jobs to come help out. It gives you goose bumps seeing these guys work so hard. It is truly a band of brothers.

And of course the contract line workers and tree trimmers brought in assistance on a massive scale; and a massive effort was needed as Hurricane Ike took dead aim on Houston and inflicted damage all across the CenterPoint service territory. A lot of these folk came over to help out coming straight from the battle lines drawn by Gustav.

The supply chain was stretched thin, partially due to all the materials and supplies already taken out of the system by Hurricane Gustav. But it was holding. Kudos to the factory workers who worked nights and weekends to make sure the linemen had the fuses and cutouts, the wire and transformers, the bolts and connectors they needed.

But in closing, I’d like to acknowledge the real unsung heroes, our families left behind to cope. Particularly those left without power who must figure out how to make it on their own. Our wives and daughters, our husbands and sons, who support us, who hold our families together while we do battle.

I’d like to close by sharing this letter that CenterPoint lineman Danny Teague said I could print. It is from his wife who wrote it after being treated less-than-kind by someone in the parking lot of a grocery store:

“Every wife of a lineman knows of the pride and danger that surrounds the men that we love and hold near and dear to our hearts. We occupy our lines with work, family, education and other things to keep our worst fears at bay. As my children come to me with questions of doubt, I feel compelled to write.

“I thought at one time my biggest hero was my father. But as I have grown into and married into this family or brothers that I have come to love and respect, I find myself hiding my worst fears from them and myself. The man I have had them build their trust on and tell all their problems to, and restore organization to our family structure to, has been away. I hear their cries of ‘Mommy, where is Dan Dan? When is he coming home?’ All I can do is occupy their time with games, outside time, movies and chores.

“My wonderful husband found time to talk to my daughter from the field. But as she still talks about it in a daze and fantasizes about how great her stepfather is, she still reminds me of the ever-present danger that is bestowed on every lineman out there.

“I had a discussion with someone in the parking lot of a grocery store, who asked me, ‘When are the lights going to be on?’ I proudly told them that my husband worked for CenterPoint Energy and he and the rest of the crew are working 16+ hours just to get the power back on. He said, ‘Well, I bet you have power.’ All emotions ran out of me. I told this man how it really is. I told him that since the storm has come, I am the one to make sure that my kids and I have everything we need because my husband is gone. I start the generator, put the gas in it, go find gas, put the tree back up, check the attic for leaks, cut the grass, maintain the pool, kill the snakes in the backyard, cook for my children, make sure they are bathed and well. My husband has enough energy to take a shower and go to bed. The only thing I have is the prayers that I beg of God to bring him and the rest of the brothers off the pole, out of the bucket, off the street and home to their families.

“I live day in and day out, like so many other linemen’s wives, without our loved ones. Everyone should respect what they do for us. My husband does not carry a weapon, he does not pilot a ship or carry out government orders, but every day, he and his brothers risk their lives to ensure that we have the very basics of what we call life. Thank God, and then you better thank a lineman. They care for your family as well as mine. I am the very proud wife of a CenterPoint lineman.”

Autumn T. Davis

Gene - It’s good to be home

Time is funny, sometimes it just drags by. At other times, you wonder where it has is gone. This past assignment to cover the storm restoration from Ike was a blur. It seems more like months have past since Rick told me to pack my bags and get to the Houston area, but it passed by in the blink of an eye. We met with the folks at CenterPoint energy, went to the work sites, visited a lot of hard-hit communities, and a bunch of other activities. What an adventure. I am so proud of our industry. I met linemen from just about every state. They had one thing in common – pride in what they were doing. They worked 16 hour days continuously (day after day since the hurricane moved out of the area) getting the power back on.

I feel a little guilty about being home now and leaving my new friends to the huge task of completing the restoration. But the next assignment is waiting. Next week I will be back at the airport catching another plane to a new job. Right now I am reviewing the photos I took. They bring back a lot of memories and will be used to illustrate the hurricane supplement that will be written over the next month or so. It is good to be in the desert again – happy trails.

You can’t get this stuff
at your building supply store

I have written how you feed an army this size, but I have been asked how do you supply it. After all you just can’t stop at local building supply or hardware store. What about fueling the armada of vehicles? How can you take a convoy through a gas station? You don’t! That is the point of the staging areas. It is a one-stop shopping center.

CenterPoint Energy’s teams work very hard at making sure crews have every thing needed to rebuild the system. As I walked around the area, I followed the trucks to the refueling area. It was manned by CPE’s meter readers. The trucks would be refueled at least 2 at a time with precession and speed. I followed the trucks to the pole racks where they were resupplied with the poles needed to the days work. Then I was on to the hardware. CPE told me they were reusing all the hardware possible from the downed lines, but they still needed a lot of new material.

Loading poles for the day’s assignment

They had to find a lot of it to keep the crews rebuilding. I’ll never take a trip to the hardware store for granted again.

Gassing up the trucks for the day

James, Shanda and Jimbo
are so thrilled to have their power back

We pulled up to the parking lot of the”“We R 1 Barbershop” just in time to snap a photograph of Harlan lineman Charlie Kleva closing a cutout to bring the neighborhood back to life. Lineman Scott Uland and General foreman Barry Shoemaker got out their one-line diagrams and reviewed the day’s work. They were working the Bertwood 01 circuit off Homestead road in Houston. Shoemaker calls in each line as it goes hot to their CenterPoint coordinator who calls in the lines back in service to headquarters at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. so the company can keep track of the customers with service.

I met three customers who were most happy. They being the people who were waiting to open the barbershop when the line went back live. When the cutout was closed, James came out and said, “We all appreciate you.” Jimbo and Shanda, which made the rest of this barbership trio, joined in with their appreciation too.

Charlie Kleva closes cutout

Barry Shoemaker and Scott Uland review circuit diagram

Robert Thoms

Wandering around the Sam Houston staging area can be interesting, exciting, and downright adrenaline producing – but it is never boring. Line trucks can appear from any direction at any time and so can interesting people. That is how I met Robert Thoms from Port Huron, MI. He had stopped his truck in front of me to pick up ice for the crew. What caught my attention was the truck door. He works for SPE’s Wind Energy Division. Having connected two wind farms to the grid, I spotted the windmill in his logo first. Granted hurricanes are great wind producers, but I was surprised to see him, so I had to ask. Robert explained his company did everything underground overhead, distribution, transmission with a lot of other key infrastructure work so needed in the Houston. Wind farms are utility systems in their own right, so it was a natural they were here with the restoration effort. He was their pilot flying the company plane where needed. Robert was doing whatever job was needed to support his folks and get the power on. See why I say it is an interesting place. You learn from everyone.

Asplundh trucks

The area north of Houston around Tomball, TX, was really hit hard with high winds and fallen trees. We decided this was the area we wanted to see today. I saw a large group of Asplundh trucks lined up in the early morning darkness. What better place to find out where they were working than to walk over and ask. I found Duane McCoy one of CenterPoint Energy’s coordinators and talked with him. We got the information. Then talk switched to how well the restoration was going. Most of these crews had worked until 9 p.m. the night before and were back at the staging area at 6 a.m. – man that is professional dedication at its best. We also talked about the television reporters from last night and this morning. I was pretty upset after watching the early morning TV news. The media was hyping the fact that over 500,000 customers were still without power – “what was CPE doing.” Never mind the fact they have restored over 1.6 million customers in record-breaking time. They are after ratings, not facts.

Adrian Genesta

Duane had heard a story from Adrian Genesta an Asplundh employee he wanted to share. A customer had given Adrian a thank you card that their child had made to the crews working to get the power back on. I asked Duane if Adrian was in the yard and luck was with me, he was. I got to talk to Adrian first hand. He and his crew were really touched by that customer. He went and got the card to show me. Adrian said, “That made the whole thing, right here,” as he pointed to the card and his heart directly under it. Thank God, these are the type of customers we have been running into.

Readers Making Connections

I’m a Houstonian who discovered your blog and wanted to tell you how much I’m enjoying it. It’s become like my soap since I don’t have TV yet and only have internet on an iPhone. It explains so much about what is going on. I’m always curious about how things are done. And was thinking you are quite the humorist. Like the Garrison Keillor of power.

Now, I have a silly request. I don’t want to be a bother or sound stalkerish, but I’m looking for a guy that worked on the power on my street (1500 block of Vermont St) near downtown earlier in the week and just thought I’d ask if there was a way to find people or maybe you might happen to spot the crew and pass on a message. And I know you are talking to people for your blog, so you might even be interested. The crew was from Arizona. Phoenix, I think. The company name was written in a logo I never deciphered. Something orange or red and jaggy like a sun or an explosion. They wore orange shirts. I lack social skills so didn’t get his name. I don’t see them in my area anymore.

I talked to him quite a bit over the two days since most of the work was right in front of my house and I was living on my porch. He joked or hinted about dinner, but since I also lack flirting skills and rarely date, I didn’t respond at the time. But later after thinking of some of the things he’d said, I decided I was interested. But then he told me that we should have power in about 2 hours and I thought it meant they’d be there for those 2 hours and went to run an errand. They were gone by the time I returned.

Leave contact information in a blog response or contact rbush@tdworld.com

Shoemaker family from
left to right-Barry, Barry Jr,
Nephew Ed, Brother-in-Law Denny Smeal
and Jason Morris

Harlan General Foreman Barry Shoemaker is definitely NOT one of a kind. Line work runs in the family. One of his brothers is a lineman for Penelec. Another brother, unfortunately, died doing line work on an H Frame structure. Still another brother is retired from line work.

But that is not all of the Shoemakers doing line work. Shoemaker had me follow him over to another Harlan crew down a side road that was working secondary. Barry introduced them. “This is my son Barry, Jr., this is my nephew Ed and this is Jason Morris who was in my wedding. And this is Denny Smeal.” Denny is Barry’s brother-in-law.

I talked with 18-year-old Barry Jr. and asked why he had decided to follow in the family tradition. He said, “At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to get into such hard work and had figured I’d go to college, but then when I figured out the cost of college and found out I actually liked line work, I decided to do line work for a living.”

CPE comm center

Once it became obvious Ike had the Houston area in its sights, Rick and I contacted Stacy Cox in CenterPoint Energy’s public relations department and told her we were planning to come to Houston to report on the storm and what the utilities were doing in the aftermath. We explained that we wanted to talk with their restoration teams, contractors, tree trimmers, suppliers, and anyone else involved in getting the power back on. The response was come ahead. CPE was anxious to tell their story. After all, Ike was a monster of a storm and CPE believed strongly in sharing lessons learned. Utilities had to help each other.

CPE was good to their word. We were given access to every portion of the company. Alicia Dixon, manager of public relations provided us a list of the names and cell phone numbers of all their key personnel and told us to contact them, as we needed. We were met by Doug White, consulting engineer (who works of the emergency operations plan all year), as soon as we entered the facilities – what a gracious host this gentlemen is. Doug arranged access to their command center, their leadership, and their facilities. We spent an over an hour talking with David McClanahan, CEO of CenterPoint Energy and other executives. Kenny Mercado, senior division vice president, transmission and distribution explained CPE felt their employees were their best asset with the recovery.

Doug and Sherry White

Kenny gave us a detailed update of the condition of the CPE system, including poles down, customers out, number of crews, status of mutual assistance crews, and the general overall state of the company. The facts and figures were in hand when we headed to the field for our meeting with the teams restoring the system.

Asplundh’s Romando Carbohol
cuts limb away from line

When working heavily-treed areas, two things definitely go together. Line crews and tree trimming crews. And when the line and tree supervisors click, the combo can definitely get the lines back on. The dynamic changes, depending on the life cycle of the recovery.

At first, it is the line crews leading the way, clearing circuits and clearing debris. Depending on the devastation on the circuit that has been assigned as well as crew size, this can take a day or two. The line crews are close behind once they can get their buckets near the work; setting poles, replacing insulators, lifting fallen line, splicing conductors. Then as the bulk tree work recedes, the line crews call in trimming crews as needed to get individual limbs off lines, maintain clearances and to work taps. Of course the local utility coordinator, in this case CenterPoint’s coordinator, keeps up with both line and tree crews. He works hard to take care of any issues that come up while acting as liaison between CenterPoint and the crews. In this particular circuit coming out of Kukyndahl Substation, the peas and carrots were Kansas City Power and Light and Asplundh Tree Service.

I fell behind some Asplundh crews that were working a circuit in Tomball, Texas, with KCP&L. The Asplundh crew foreman Gabriel (I missed his last name) told us their trimming crews were located down Kuykendahl highway removing massive limbs from the primary. Gene and I headed down the road and arrived to see that the Asplundh crew already had cones out with flagmen handling the traffic that had been reduced to one lane. Asplundh trimmer Romando Carbohol who had traveled here to Texas from San Jacinto, California was already working from his bucket taking down the biggest limbs hanging over the street. Then he cut off segments of tree limbs until he got to the portion of the limbs resting on the wire. Romando then surgically made cuts first down, then up, until the short limb segments came free. He then cut another length of limb to provide adequate line clearance. I went up to talk to Armando who told me he had left California the Sunday after the hurricane hit ten days ago. But I didn’t get to talk long. The radio beckoned and Romando and his fellow crew mates were off down Kuykendahl Highway, headed to the next location where tree met wire.