Poles & Equipment

Vegetation Management

Trees and limbs that come in contact with power lines can cause numerous problems including outages, fires and endanger children climbing trees. Storms and winds can also cause branches to rub on power lines causing blinking lights in your home or business. To protect our lines and keep power flowing safely to your home, Linn County REC has a year round program that maintains our right-of-way (ROW).

A right-of-way (ROW) refers to a strip of land underneath or around power lines that Linn County REC has the right and responsibility to maintain and clear. Specifications can vary, but a general guideline of maintaining a safe ROW is 15 feet of clearance on either side of the primary conductors and 20 feet of overhead clearance above the highest wire on the pole.

We outsource our ROW maintenance to Asplundh Tree Expert Company and Midwest Spray Team. Our tree trimming and removal program keeps tree limbs and other obstacles away from high-voltage power lines. It’s an important part of the service we provide to our members for three reasons: safety, reliability and cost.

Safety

Our primary concern is the safety of our workers and members. ROW clearing keeps your family safe by ensuring that tree branches do not become energized due to close contact with a power line. Be mindful when around trees close to power lines, and make sure your children know that climbing trees near power lines is extremely dangerous. Properly maintained ROW keeps our crews safe when they are restoring service and maintaining our system.

Reliability

If severe weather occurs, a well maintained ROW leads to fewer outages and a faster response time. Trees are less of a threat. When trees do fall, crews are able to restore service more quickly than they could with poorly maintained areas.

Cost

Linn County REC strives to keep costs affordable. Maintaining our ROW is an important part of controlling costs. Fewer and shorter outages saves money for everyone. Outsourcing our ROW maintenance is another way for us to keep costs low. These companies are specialized and are able to access equipment that Linn County REC can’t without significant costs.

>Please contact Linn County REC before you trim or remove trees near any power service or line. If you would like to report a tree that needs trimmed, please contact our Operations Department.

Linn County REC Tree Permit Form

Line, Substation, & Pole Inspections

Linn County REC’s detailed line inspection program includes the inspection of all overhead electric lines over a 7-year period and underground cables inspected over an 8-year period. In addition to the detailed line inspection every 7 years, Linn County REC crews complete a drive-by inspection of the entire system annually.

Overhead

Linn County REC inspects approximately 14% of the overhead system each year. The areas to be inspected are recorded on system maps that are set up by map areas.

A detailed inspection is made on a pole by pole basis to check the condition of the pole and pole top assemblies. The lines are also checked to make sure they meet the requirements of the National Electrical Safety Code.

Underground

At the present time Linn County REC has approximately 668 miles of underground cable installed on its distribution system.

In addition to regular outage records, a map is maintained to track underground faults. These records, along with the system outage records, are used to schedule underground cable replacement projects.

Substation Inspection

Linn County REC owns and operates 31 distribution substations.

Each substation is inspected once a month and a substation report is completed. Our Operations Department reviews the substation report and maintenance is scheduled as required.

The monthly substation inspection includes a visual inspection for each piece of equipment within the substation and the exterior of the substation.

Pole Inspection and Treatment Schedules

Linn County REC has a line pole inspection scheduled on a 7-year cycle. The inspections are done on an area basis with all of our poles, within a given area, being inspected each year.

The program consists of a complete inspection of the poles, ground line testing of treated poles and reporting rejected poles that are to be replaced.

Linn County REC hires a contractor to complete its pole inspections. Linn County REC crews also report poles that must be replaced as the poles are found. We do not treat poles.

The contractor is asked to provide a special note for poles that should receive immediate attention. Immediate attention poles are replaced within a week. Other rejected poles are generally replaced within twelve months. Linn County REC maintains a database of all the pole test results.

Meter Testing

Linn County REC will test watt-hour meters for accuracy and physical condition. All meters and associated devices will be tested within 180 days after they are removed from service. Such tests will be made before the meters and associated devices are adjusted, repaired, returned to active service, or retired.

All watt-hour meters must be accurate to within plus or minus 2% at full and light load. Demand meters shall be accurate to within 1.5%. Watt-hour meters failing to meet such standard will be replaced.

The Cooperative will sample test new meters to ascertain if they meet the required accuracy limits. For routine in-service tests, the Cooperative may remove the meter for testing at the Cooperative’s meter shop and replace it with another tested meter or the meter may be tested on site.

Upon request by a member-consumer, the Cooperative will test the meter servicing that member-consumer, except that such tests will not be made more frequently than once in 18 months.

A written report of the test results will be mailed to the customer within 10 days of the completed test and a record of each test shall be kept on file at the Cooperative's office. Linn County REC will give the member-consumer or a representative of the member-consumer the opportunity to be present while the test is conducted.

If the test finds the meter is accurate within the limit accepted by Linn County REC in its meter inspection and testing program, Linn County REC may charge the member-consumer $25 or the cost of conducting the test, whichever is less. The member-consumer will be advised of any potential charge before the meter is removed for testing.

Linn County REC’s meter testing schedule and method is based on the type of meter form and the level of load being metered and can be found in the following tables. For meters tested using a statistical sampling method, the statistical sampling shall be in compliance with ANSI ASQ Z1.4-2008 as described in ANSI C12.1-2008. Linn County REC’s test boards are tested every twelve months on a Master Standard.

Lightning Strike Mitigation Program

In Iowa unexpected weather happens quickly. Many power outages are the result of lighting strikes during severe storms.

In order to reduce potential outages due to lightning, Linn County REC has a lightning outage mitigation program in place. Our goal for the lightning outage mitigation program is to provide a method of increasing system reliability by reducing lightning-caused outages. As a part of this program, Linn County REC installs integrated lightning arrestors on all of its new overhead transformers. Arrestors are an over voltage device that lessens the effect of a lighting strike by diverting some of the strike energy to the ground and bringing the line back to a normal operating level.

In addition to our transformers, all underground wires from overhead lines have arrestors installed. Substations are designed with numerous lightning arrestors in place to protect all facets of the substation facility.

Animal Contact Reduction Program

Squirrels, raccoons or birds can all cause outages if they come in contact with energized wires on a pole or in a substation. If an animal does make contact, this can cause a power outage or blinking lights in your home or business.

In order to help alleviate this problem, Linn County REC initiated an animal contact reduction program for all substations. This substation program follows efforts to reduce the number of individual outages due to animal contact.

On major substation maintenance projects or new substation construction projects, wildlife guards are included in design and installation at strategic locations within the substation. Additional wildlife guards are also installed at substation locations and overhead transformers where animal related outages have occurred more frequently. We include a wildlife guard on each new overhead transformer before it is installed. Where necessary, tin flashing is also used to deter an animal from climbing a pole.

Planned Interruption Notification Program

Planned interruptions are scheduled at the most convenient time for member consumers and Linn County REC representatives. Any planned interruption scheduled for more than one half hour is preceded by adequate notice to those member consumers who will be affected. Member consumers are notified of the planned outage by phone or letter.

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)

Linn County REC is currently involved in the ongoing process of installing a system-wide Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. The SCADA system provides us information to monitor and control points throughout the entire distribution system on a “real time” basis. The real time knowledge gained by using the SCADA system informs Linn County REC staff of potential problems on our system before they affect our member consumers.

The SCADA system provides voltage and current data for most of our substations. SCADA also alerts our staff when voltage levels fall outside a normal operating level.

As part of the installation process, Linn County REC is also installing SCADA operated switches at certain points on the system. This will allow us to automatically switch a load to a different substation if there is a transmission outage. By switching the load it will decease the outage duration and may prevent additional outages.

Ultimately, SCADA will help us improve the reliability of electricity to your homes and businesses by providing valuable information needed to address potential problems before they happen.