System improvements to reduce outages on HREC system

Improvements are currently being made to Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative’s power distribution network to reduce outages, especially those caused by lightning. This will have a significant impact on members, since it is estimated that more than 400 outages were caused by lightning in 2008.
The first improvement being made across Heartland’s system is to improve the 5,000 fuses on the system, by replacing standard fuses with surge durable fuses which have a high surge capacity and overload protection.
Secondly, Heartland is making changes to better protect valuable equipment such as transformers and substations so that when lightning does strike, the damage and impact can be minimized and localized. Cooper Storm Trapper arrestors are being installed on transformers, and outdated arrestors are being replaced at substations.
Heartland crews are also taking more aggressive actions to ensure that everything is properly grounded. Ground resistance is being tested with new equipment, and multiple grounding rods are being installed when necessary.
One change that can be seen by members is on the poles.
Traditionally, cross arms on electric poles had holes drilled through at the ends where cross arm pins went through to hold the insulator and power line in place. The hole was unfortunately a weak spot, splitting with age and from lightning strikes, leading to blinks and outages.
Heartland’s new system is called a saddle pin and clamps around the cross arm. As a result the cross arm does not split out and will not need to be replaced nearly as often.
By reducing nuisance fuse blows, transformer failures and other problems, Heartland REC expects to reduce the outages caused by lightning by as much as 30 percent.

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