It really depends on the day and the project. Sometimes our crew is working on new construction and other times maintenance or outages. Right now, my crew is working on a voltage conversion project in the Twin Lakes Village subdivision. This project will take approximately 2 months to complete. After that, we may work on some shorter-term projects. At KEC, we do it all: overhead, underground, switching, road widening, and more. I appreciate working on different kinds of projects in different locations across our service territory.
Tell us about the voltage conversion project you are working on.
The electricity serving the Twin Lakes Village area is fed from 1 feeder coming out of our Scarcello substation. From there, specialty equipment called step-down transformers are used to split the circuit into 2 different voltages: 15kV (7,200 volts) and 25kV (14,400 volts). My crew is currently working to convert the Twin Lakes Village subdivision to the higher voltage. This work will improve reliability for members and will eliminate the need for this specialty equipment (step-down transformers). It will also allow KEC engineering and operations staff to better monitor electric load and coordinate equipment to isolate outages and improve restoration times.