The Ketchikan City Council approved a contract to begin replacing power pole insulators on the city’s electric grid.
Insulators are the corkscrew-like pieces that suspend the electrical wires on a power pole. In late April, one of them failed, causing a blackout in Ketchikan, Wrangell, and Petersburg. According to Ketchikan Public Utilities Electric manager Jeremy Bynum, those insulators are aging out across the grid and causing fires.
“We’ve experienced multiple 35kv insulator failures across our system. Those failures resulted in pole fires and system blackouts and conditions we can’t tolerate in our system. This contract is a response to that,” said Bynum at the City Council meeting on July 9.
The contract is with Sturgeon Electric, a Colorado-based contractor, for roughly $913,000. Bynum said the contract terms are that Sturgeon Electric will help KPU replace nearly 1,000 insulators at risk of potentially catastrophic failure. Bynum said they are expected to complete the project by October.
“I wish tonight I was here with a better solution. But I don’t have a better solution,” said Bynum. “But I do feel its necessary that we take these steps in order to make these repairs so that by the time we get into winter, we’re not experiencing these types of failures.”
The city council unanimously approved the contract with Sturgeon Electric.
