Jesse Lor's most commented articles

~5/2/16: Seems that Xcel Energy paid a recent visit to this structure to update some equipment: www.ipernity.com/doc/331527/34174431 I have no clue as to what they did on this structure, but considering its age I hope they didn't replace it with a clamp brace & modern bank. Will keep on the look out to see if anything happens. I wonder if this pole is in possible danger as well since both poles are literally a few spans from each other: www.ipernity.com/doc/331527/34174411

~10/31/14 Tomorrow I'll be heading to the Mankato area to pick up a delievery. I don't recall of any times when I had to travel southwest of the Twin Cities, so it'll be interesting to see what kind of lines I'll run into.

I have recently been noticing some crews from other areas have been going around and helping out Xcel after recent thunderstorms. Xcel says that there are 22 different companies from 14 other states helping them out. Today I saw a couple Ameren Illinois trucks in a Sears parking lot, along with some trailers. I also saw a couple Xcel trucks zipping by while traveling on the interstate.

~1/9/18: Just some questions I've been wondering about for the longest time: What would happen if a "normal open" loop was closed in a circuit and tied the two station transformers together. Would there be any drawbacks in regards to the transformers for having tied in two subs / sources together? Other question: How many subs can a typical 69kv line supply power to? Recently, I've been tracking down some lines around my area to see where they go and I was quite surprised to see a single 6…

Well it seems that spring is finally here! Some nice weather here in MN, nice enough to start work on my power lines again and also go on some line safaris. Seems that the only damage my power lines recieved in that Feb. 18-20th weather was the neutral wire coming off a pole, but nothing else seemed to be damaged. This year wasn't as bad unlike last year when my area still kept getting snow until early May.

Well it seems that this Saturday I MIGHT be able to take a drive around to get some photos of Dunn Energy's distribution feeds out of a sub. If things go as planned, I might be able to go to one of their substations for some photos. I was promised to go there (only about 14-17 mins from my farm) three years ago but it never happend (too much to ask as it seemed). I might keep this as an active article to post recent safaris. But I'm very excited about it! 5/21/13~~ New trip coming soon... As…

I'm sure everyone remembers that day when they logged onto Flickr and saw more of what they expected. On May 20th (day I saw the new layout) of last year in '13, I remember coming home and seeing all this junk / confussing mess of random photos all over the page. It's hard to believe that it's been nearly a year since most of us fled from our "home site". Anyway I'm still on Flickr uploading photos every few weeks or so. Thanks for stopping by!

~11/10/14: I guess its time to get ready for the snow covered rooftops, dirty windshields, and icy conditions! As of today, its currently snowing out (even as I type), theres about a good inch that covered most of the ground over here, but the ground hasn't froze...yet. Its probably the "end" of the line construction season for my homemade poles for the year. Maybe if I'm lucky, the ground won't be completely frozen by nextweek.

~ 12/22/14: Just a vid I came across on Youtube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=440xnCjpnRU

I woke up today to find out I was experiencing my first power outage. Apparently there were a couple hundred people without power in my area, there were about 130,000 customers without power in the state according to Xcel Energy during the early hours of the after math of the storm. I heard lots of loud thunder, at some point so loud that I had to cover my ears, raining hard, and strong winds. People in Hudson, Wisconsin were also affected by the thunderstorms. I did not see any damage on the p…

Yesterday (2-20-14) here in MN we got a recently snow storm of 6-12 inches here. No damage to anything. We still have power, but a lot of cars were on the sides of roads or in ditches this morning. It seemed quite dubious that the ones in the ditches along I-94 would be free anytime soon. Random fact: February 18th was very fun and interesting day for me. It probably was because I got some new ideas for my power lines.

We've had quite a number of thunderstorms around here so far in early to mid June. While the weather is nice and warm out, it can often times leave surprises for ones after a storm. As of today five of my homemade poles have been damaged by tree branches falling into the lines. The storms didn't bring down any trees, only branches. I couldn't find any nearby tree branches that could have fallen on the lines, only found 2-3 ft long skinny twigs. Damage wasn't very bad, lines torn from poles, brac…

As of August 14th, I happen to be driving down a road not far from my place until I spotted some linework going on. Seems that Xcel is upgrading a 19.9 / 7.9kv (line gets stepped down at a trans. pole) branch line to a new three phase 34.5kv circuit on FIBERGLASS ARMS!!!!!!!! I've taken a lot of interest in NSP / Xcel's 34.5 system since it was always the type that caught my attention, and I was hoping that this day would never come. NOT a single pole with wooden arms or braces in sight!

with IOU and Co-Op systems. Back when I was a youngster, I had no idea what a co-op was and no idea it existed. I always thought utilities everywhere were IOUs, it wasn't until a few years later when I started to explore around the rural areas of Wisconsin. When the family got some property in rural WI I was excited to come along and see the utility system that was there. I noticed that the all the poles looked almost the same, the spacing between the primary and neutral were spaced evenly on e…

~11/3/14: Recently, I've been thinking about building a confusing / wtf structure. One of my poles has two down guys and it makes me a little nervous when I see someone driving an ATV near the down guys. I thought about putting in another pole and connecting them with a beam (to eliminate the guys), and adding some sort of "odd" details to it. Maybe I'll make a sketch of what I have in mind later on.

~ 3/13/15: Surprisingly, all the snow here is just about gone. Temperature is in the 60s with clear blue sunny skies, just the way most of us prefer it! I plan on doing some Line Chasing myself soon. Thanks for reading!

~7/18/15: Anyone else get some severe thunderstorms from last night? We sure did! Thankfully, very little to no damage occurred where I'm at. Also, the reclosers on my neighborhood line did there job so there were no long term outages. However, friends in WI (same area where my "homemade" power poles are at) were not so lucky. There were reports of tornado like winds from last nights storm, which did lead to dozens of downed trees and part of my friends roof completely gone (Fortunately, everyo…

~5/24/18: I was out fishing with a friend earlier today for a while until we noticed the weather began to turn ugly within a half hour or so after seeing the severe weather warnings on our phones. No kidding-wind blowing dust all around us, distant lightning, and thunder drowning our voices forced us to pack up and head out. Didn't see any trees or branches down, just a lot of swaying and leaves flying around. While driving back, I noticed a number of intersections, traffic lights, and a f…

Here's an old vid I found, I think some of you guys might find it interesting: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz6z0xkCK3E

~1/20/16: This has been a question that I've been wondering for a while, but why does one not become "shocked" when in contact with a neutral wire? After searching on the web only to find various answers, I decided to hear from what you guys have to say. I had no idea what the purpose of a neutral was until about two years ago.