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  1. #11
    daowens Guest

    Default Chance cutouts

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    Folks:
    I'm the reporter whose story was posted earlier in this thread and I remain interested in tracking down information about Chance cutouts, both good and bad. I wrote a story last week about a lineman who was badly injured in Massachusetts allegedly as a result of a failing chance cutout.

    As for the CL&P employee being inside the Dunkin' Donuts in Farmington and that being the real story, I can only report what I was told my numerous officials. I was told by CL&P one of their people was in the area when the fire occurred and called in the problem to CL&P. CL&P did not say the employee was in the DD.

    If he was in the DD and helped save the people in there too, good for him. He deserves credit because he helped prevent a real tragedy.

    All the best,

    Dave Owens
    The Hartford Courant
    dowens@courant.com

  2. #12
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    Default

    Dave
    Could you post your story from last week here?

  3. #13
    t-shooter Guest

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    Dave,


    That is the real story behind the people escaping without injury from the Dunkin Donuts. ie. a CL&P lneman in the store at the time.

  4. #14
    daowens Guest

    Default April 5 Courant story

    Hello all:
    Per Loodvig's request, here's the story I wrote last week. It's not news to you folks, but was hopefully news to people in Connecticut.
    --Dave

    Utility Pole Device Criticized

    Massachusetts Lineman Loses Arm; Union Seeks New Procedures

    By DAVID OWENS
    Courant Staff Writer

    April 15 2006

    A trouble-prone pole-top device suspected of causing a fire in Farmington last May that destroyed four cars and a Dunkin' Donuts is now suspected of causing an accident that maimed a utility lineman in Massachusetts last month.

    The accident March 14 in Andover, Mass., injured a lineman working for National Grid, the local utility company. An official with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said an A.B. Chance porcelain cutout failed while the lineman worked on the pole, causing a 7,620-volt wire to drop onto the lineman's arm.

    The lineman lost his right arm above the elbow and the thumb on his left hand, according to a document filed with the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control, which conducted an investigation into A.B. Chance cutouts on the Connecticut Light & Power Co. system.

    During the course of the DPUC investigation, which was prompted by a Courant investigation into A.B. Chance cutouts, CL&P announced it would spend $4.5 million a year to remove Chance porcelain cutouts from its system. The program, which is expected to take three years, represents a nine-fold increase in removal efforts. CL&P must report to DPUC once a year on the status of its A.B. Chance porcelain cutout removal efforts.

    IBEW officials who represent some CL&P workers say A.B. Chance cutouts are a threat to the public, linemen and others who work on utility poles, such as cable television and telephone workers.

    The accident in Andover occurred when the lineman began using an impact wrench on the pole about 6 feet below the high voltage primary wires, said James G. "Red" Simpson, business manager for IBEW Local 326 in Lawrence, Mass.

    "He was tightening up the transformer mount bolts," Simpson said during an interview this week. "The vibration from the [wrench] caused the cutout to come apart."

    The porcelain on the cutout, Simpson said, "was broken right off clean. It was obvious it was cracked."

    The accident is under investigation by National Grid and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

    Simpson said that based on the reports of eyewitnesses and the failure history of A.B. Chance cutouts, he is confident a faulty cutout is the cause.

    "It's my opinion the failed cutout was the root cause of the accident," Simpson said. "It is probably, in my opinion, one of the most straightforward pure accidents that you'd ever see. The guy went up on the pole to do a job. An unrelated piece of equipment ... failed and caused him to come in contact with the [wire]."

    Concern about vibration causing faulty A.B. Chance cutouts to come apart is not new.

    Dan Weston, engineering and operations director for the Washington Electric Co-operative in Vermont, told The Courant last year that he issued his linemen binoculars so that they can carefully inspect A.B. Chance porcelain cutouts before they begin climbing a pole. "By jiggling the pole, this thing can physically break in half," Weston said last year. "Linemen start to climb a pole and this thing will fall apart and you can have a ball of fire up there."

    Officials with two IBEW locals that represent some CL&P lineman brought the Massachusetts accident to the attention of DPUC, which has adopted a draft decision regarding CL&P and its A.B. Chance cutouts. The union contends the only safe way to replace A.B. Chance cutouts on the CL&P system is to de-energize the lines before any work begins. That could mean lots of power outages as crews remove the cutouts.

    CL&P insists the A.B. Chance cutouts cannot be conclusively linked to the Farmington incident - in which customers in the Dunkin' Donuts were hurried out the back door to safety - but in the draft decision a DPUC hearing officer found that nothing else could have started the fire.

    Hearing officer Donald W. Downes found that "failure of a cutout manufactured by A.B. Chance Co. is the most probable cause."

    "Regardless of the cause of that fire," Downes continued, "Chance cutouts are known to be failing at an escalating rate, presenting safety issues to the public and to utility employees. The department believes that it is important to remove the devices from the electric system in a deliberate manner, and therefore it will monitor their removal."

    In response to the union filing about the Massachusetts accident, which came after DPUC closed its hearing on the matter, a lawyer for CL&P urged the council to ignore the union's new information and to adopt the draft decision. Cutouts can be safely removed when lines are energized, but lines can be de-energized if there are specific safety concerns, the power company lawyer wrote in response to the union filing.

    In the draft decision, Downes finds that CL&P's removal plan "strikes an appropriate balance between safety, financial considerations and scheduling concerns."
    Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant

  5. #15
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    That's why a trampbag has handles.....
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    Post Hubble Power Systems - A B Chance

    This thread about A B Chance cutouts is starting sound a lot like the problem Ohio Brass faced in the late ‘60’s to the early ‘90’s with their pin type 69kv shirted clamp top type insulators. For years those insulators were a serious problem, breaking off just under the clamp, often while the lineman was climbing the pole. There were warnings in every publication of the IBEW for years before anyone took serious interest in what was really going on.

    Almost all utilities had changed out the offending insulators by the mid ‘80’s and the lawsuits, I know of none that were for personal injury to linemen, by the utilities against Ohio Brass eventually broke them and OB disappeared from sight for some time.

    Ohio Brass appeared again some time in the 90’s under the Hubbell Power Systems banner, a subsidiary company along with subsidiaries Fargo and (guess who) AB Chance.

    http://www.hubbellpowersystems.com/default.htm

    The above hyperlink will take you to the Hubbell site, see PRODUCTS.

    Some utilities have been on aggressive change out programs for faulty apparatus, like the various makes of porcelain cutout, not because they are afraid of lawsuits for personal injury to the public or their workers but because identified problem apparatus causes outage frequency spikes undesirable to the various watchdogs, such as the various PUCs, of the industry.

    Be careful out there. Many Workers’ Compensation Boards in the USA and Canada exist only to protect the companies, not the workers. There are limitations, often a little over $150,000 maximum, paid out to the survivor’s family upon a workers death and prohibit the company from being sued even if grossly negligent. Check out the WCB or equivalent in your jurisdiction.

    Why would any company fear a worker injury lawsuit considering this? Companies do, however, fear company to company suits such as the ones that broke Ohio Brass in their first life.
    Have Trampbag, Will Travel

    Everyone who comes here brings a little joy.

    Some when they come in. Others when they leave.

  6. #16
    daowens Guest

    Default September 13 Courant story

    Here is my story from September, the first I wrote about the issue.
    --Dave

    Published: Tuesday, September 13, 2005
    Edition: 5 NORTHWEST CONNECTICUT/SPORTS FINAL
    Page: A1
    Section: MAIN
    Source: DAVID OWENS; Courant Staff Writer
    Column: Series:




    Headline:
    A `TIME BOMB' SITS ATOP 30,000 UTILITY POLES IN STATE
    CL&P REMOVING PORCELAIN INSULATORS PRONE TO CRACKING

    Text:
    The fire that incinerated four cars and a Dunkin' Donuts restaurant May 7 began with a tiny crack in a porcelain insulator high atop a utility pole along Route 4 in Farmington.

    Through that crack flowed 23,000 volts of electricity that burned through a wooden cross arm. The wire carrying those 23,000 volts then fell to the ground, touching off the fire.

    A cool-headed Dunkin' Donuts manager locked the restaurant's front door and herded customers and employees out the back. Police and firefighters say it was a miracle no one was killed or injured.

    At the time, it appeared to be one of those freak accidents that just occurs from time to time.

    It wasn't.

    The insulator that failed was attached to a protective device called a ``cutout'' made by A.B. Chance, a division of Hubbell Inc., in Orange, Conn.

    There are tens of thousands of cutouts on utility systems. Cutouts halt the flow of electricity if there is a surge, protecting transformers and other electric equipment the same way circuit breakers protect a home.

    The Farmington fire was an extreme example of what can happen when a cutout fails. But older cutouts -- especially those made by Chance -- fail more frequently than other types, according to a utility company study, persuading utility companies around the Northeast, including CL&P, to replace them. Unions representing lineman whose safety depends upon reliable equipment say replacements are not going fast enough. They fear that the older porcelain-insulated cutouts jeopardize public safety.

    ``They're basically a time bomb that should be aggressively pursued,'' said John Unikas of Local 420 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents many CL&P line workers.

    Unikas said the union complained to CL&P about A.B. Chance porcelain cutouts. The union also complained to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration about an April 20, 2004, incident in Goshen, where a Chance ceramic cutout failed. In that incident, like in Farmington, a cross arm burned, causing a high voltage wire to drop, in this case, onto the wire carrying electricity to a house. It damaged the home's electrical system and some appliances.

    Reports of problems with A.B. Chance cutouts seem to be confined to northern climates, and utility officials suspect the freeze-thaw cycle is to blame.

    A spokesman for Hubbell Inc. said Monday he was not aware of the Farmington fire, but said the company would investigate.

    The spokesman did say trouble with porcelain insulators is an industry problem and not confined to A.B. Chance products. Porcelain insulators are susceptible to cracking because of fluctuations in temperature in cold northern states, Thomas R. Conlin, the company's vice president for public affairs, said.

    Utilities in the South do not report such problems, he said.

    Porcelain is a very durable material, but the smallest crack can create a problem, Conlin said. ``It freezes and then you know what happens,'' he said.

    Utilities in the North are switching to a new kind of cutout that uses a polymer material as the insulator, Conlin and utility company officials said.

    Conlin attributed the singling out of A.B. Chance cutouts by some utilities and others to the company's market share. ``The odds are when one fails, since A.B. Chance sells a larger number of these than anyone else, it's likely it will be an A.B. Chance cutout,'' Conlin said.

    CL&P says the remaining 30,000-plus A.B. Chance ceramic cutouts on its system are safe. Still, the company is removing them at a pace of about 4,000 a year. An extra $500,000 was allocated to that effort in 2005 as part of a settlement of a federal OSHA complaint brought by the union. The removal program is expected to take years, added CL&P spokeswoman Mary Ingarra. ``They're not living up to their [life] expectancy'' of about 40 years, she said.

    NU is not alone in reporting trouble with Chance cutouts.

    The Washington Electric Co-operative in Vermont has termed A.B. Chance porcelain cutouts ``lemons'' in newsletters sent to its members. And co-op officials in recent years reported failures of A.B. Chance ceramic cutouts as the second leading cause of power outages on its system. Severe weather was No. 1.

    Pennsylvania Power & Light, which serves central and northeastern Pennsylvania, is removing A.B. Chance porcelain cutouts from its distribution system.

    Dan Weston, engineering and operations director for the Vermont co-op, said he issued his linemen binoculars so that they can carefully inspect A.B. Chance porcelain cutouts before they begin climbing a pole. ``By jiggling the pole, this thing can physically break in half,'' Weston said. ``Linemen start to climb a pole and this thing will fall apart and you can have a ball of fire up there.''

    Not all cutout failures spark fires. Most often, the result is a localized power outage or downed wires. But reliability problems with the A.B. Chance porcelain cutouts have cost utilities money as they buy new cutouts to replace the failed devices and pay line crews to do the work. Weston estimates replacing a faulty A.B. Chance porcelain cutout costs his company $300.

    Northeast Utilities -- which includes CL&P, Western Massachusetts Electric and Public Service of New Hampshire -- determined in May 2001 that the typical failure rate of porcelain cutouts from 1988 to 2001 was 0.12 percent, according to a letter to the Hartford OSHA office from two CL&P managers.

    The company study attributed the failure of the porcelain cutouts to cracks in cemented connections to metal hardware as well as cracks in the glazing on the porcelain. The cracks allow moisture to get into the porcelain or the cemented connections. During the freeze-thaw cycle, the cracks widen. The company estimated it would have 500 porcelain cutout failures a year.

    ``The A.B. Chance porcelain cutouts have experienced a slightly higher failure rate than other brands,'' the CL&P letter reads. ``Northeast Utilities stopped purchasing A.B. Chance cutouts in February of 2001. Approximately 50,000 A.B. Chance devices were in service in 2003. Action has been taken to ensure ... the replacement of existing A.B. Chance porcelain cutouts.''

    NU replaced the Chance cutouts with porcelain cutouts manufactured by S&C Electric Co., and reliability of those devices has ``been consistently high,'' the letter reads. NU is now installing cutouts with polymer insulators.

    The Farmington fire has left Farmington Town Council Chairman Bruce Chudwick wanting to know more about the incident. However, the state agency charged with regulating utilities has opted not to take a closer look at what happened in Farmington on May 7.

    ``We don't know what caused this, whether there was a storm the day before that could have cracked something,'' said Beryl Lyons, a state Department of Public Utility Control spokeswoman. ``Because there were no fatalities or injuries, we are not obligated to do an investigation.''

    Chudwick said he was surprised by that response. ``We have to wait for someone to get killed or injured before they look at this?'' Chudwick said. ``This seems like a serious enough incident that it should warrant investigation by DPUC.''

  7. #17
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    It has been raining here for over 24 hours now. In my last 12 hour shift I counted 5 calls related to Chance cutouts! Two poles burnt off with one flipping over causing the feeder to lock out. On the other call the crew had to kill the area to clear the problem. No wonder our 'goals' program has gone down the toilet!

  8. #18
    walrus Guest

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    We are starting a major replacement of Chance CO's in our company as over the last couple years we have had several poles burnt off because of the CO failure. They tell us that the one's to watch out for are the ones that have stainless steel tops.

  9. #19
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    The ones with the stainless tops do seem to be the worst. Also the stainless ones will have a date stamped on the top. eg. 6 83

  10. #20
    t-shooter Guest

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    The stainless steel tops have the greatest failure rate but also watch out for the galvanized top ones. Rule of thumb....Watch out for all cutouts marked Chance!

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