On Tuesday, June 20, at approximately 10:30 a.m., an alert employee noticed an issue with a set of transmission switches in a substation yard from Garkane’s 69 kV transmission line.
From left to right, photos courtesy of Garkane Energy:
The damaged transmission switch was replaced before failure of the switch structure could occur.
Garkane crews work to bypass a broken transmission switch in the substation yard.
To prevent a longer, more extensive outage and potentially the catastrophic failure of the switch structure, crews bypassed the switch in a timely manner. After opening the switch (roughly 20 minutes), all but two feeders in the Kanab/Fredonia area were returned to service. Crews then began the work to bypass the switch. An additional 20-minute outage was then required to complete the bypass work and bring all members back into service.
A loop feed grid system, which tends to be found in highly populated areas, allows power to be looped from another source when there is an outage. These systems are extremely expensive but the high-density population can usually justify the cost of such systems with higher rates. Because of the re- mote nature and extremely large service territory, Garkane employs a radial feed grid system, so when there is an outage power can’t be looped. Depending on where the fault happens, every fault on the line causes an outage until it can be repaired. Crews work diligently and effectively within their limitations of a radial feed grid system to restore outages while maintaining proper safety precautions to ensure crews return safely to their families.
