Jesse Lor's photos

46kV riser pole.

Some old (for 34.5kV) childhood poles I saw every time I visited family in the northern suburbs. Xcel replaced these poles not long after this picture was taken (a new apartment complex was being build off to the left hence the construction prep).

Narrow 46kV construction.

Some odd poles here. Especially that one in the back.

Recently, my father and I were cleaning out the garage at our place where we removed an old defunct heater that sat in the back of the garage for years. When we removed the heater, I noticed the wiring was too light to be copper and upon closer inspection, the sheathing said "KAISER ALUMINUM". I've never seen Al romex before in person so I thought it was pretty neat to come across this, however, I do recall reading stories of house fires, electrical failures, etc from this type of wiring.

Some street lightning I saw a while back in Orange County, California.

Nothing special, just a three phase feeder running along a rural road.

An older transformer pole with a 'dropped' single phase tap.

A photo I took in 2013 of a 7.9kV pole with a short crossarm and glass on the neutral. Unfortunately Xcel rebuilt the entire line to full three phase last year and everything, including this pole and others like it, bit the dust.

(Not my picture) A line of downed poles after the derecho.

(Not my picture). Just a photo of some storm work following the recent derecho that ripped through the midwest. I've seen quite a handful of out-of-state utility trucks on the freeways, presumably headed towards areas that were hardest hit. I do know that Dairyland Power has been providing mutual aid assistance for Central Iowa Power, along with other utilities such as Corn Belt Power.

An updated shot of this oddball line.

A relatively new pole that was put up sometime this year. The previous pole wasn't even that old-it was installed sometime around 2006-07 ( flic.kr/p/dMw6ax ) . I'm guessing some type of accident must have occurred, leading them to replace the pole. Lastly, they mounted the blasted dead-end arm backwards!

A friend from NC took these pictures and sent them to me. Looks like a reconductor job.

A brand new line that went up last year to replace a ratty old 7.9kV line that was across the road. During these last few years, Xcel has been rebuilding many of their lines to full three phase in the rural suburbs-this line being one of them. I'm not entirely sure what their motive is considering all the load on this line is served from the road phase. This line simply dead-ends a mile or so at the next intersection (34.5kV ends and a newly rebuilt 13.8kV line begins). I'm guessing this is prep for the nearby city of Woodbury since new developments are springing up like crazy. I read a report a while ago which stated Xcel's plans to put a new substation in the vicinity to accommodate increasing power demands in Woodbury. However, residents retaliated and insisted the sub be relocated in Woodbury instead.