Posted: 5/30/06
Caledonia working on electrical problems
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
City electrician Roger Schmitz updated the Caledonia City Council last week on problems with some of the cityís underground circuits.
He would like to replace the initial wires for all six circuits leading out of the substation behind city hall. Each circuit serves a different area of the city.
There have been two major blowouts in recent months, Schmitz said.
Schmitz said he had no idea of the cost involved, but that he would come back with estimates at the June 12 meeting.
He recommended doing something quickly. Temperatures will be going up, meaning people will be using their air conditioners, he said.
ėStuff is getting old out there,î Schmitz said. ėI think we ought to do something before something does happen.î
Hereís how city clerk Robert Nelson explained the situation to The Argus on May 24:
The initial wires/lines carry the full ėloadî coming off the substation to serve that circuit. These wires/lines have a specified ėload capacity.î
When installed years ago, each wire/line had a wide margin of ėsurplus capacity.î Although electrical energy usage has increased many fold over the years since those wires/lines were installed, there is still a margin of surplus capacity when all is running smoothly and each wire/line is carrying only the ėloadî designed for that circuit.
The focus of Schmitzís concern and recommendation to replace those old wires/lines with new wires/lines, having far greater load capacity, is the time when all is NOT running smoothly.
When a fault occurs such that a portion of one circuit or a full circuit must be shut down, then the load from that portion or full circuit must be transferred to another circuit or circuits to keep serving everybody with electrical energy. The other circuit or circuits are then carrying the additional load from the substation and may exceed their load capacity.
Exceeding the load capacity for a short period of time is relatively speaking, acceptable, but it is not a condition one would choose have for an extended period of time.
Since the demand for electrical energy appears to be steadily increasing, it is now time for upgrading to wires/lines, which will regain a wide margin of ėsurplus load capacityî for those times when all is not running smoothly and loads must be transferred from one circuit to another.
Caledonia Argus
314 West Lincoln St.
P.O. Box 227
Caledonia, MN 55921-0227
507/724-3475
E-Mail: editor.argus@ecm-inc.com