Testing urd cable

[reppy007]

Ran into a contracting company that I used to work for this morning,asked for a certain person and was told that he was down the street,so here goes reppy fishing for his old buddy.After finding him I asked how long has he been working for the company which is Mpt....Poot knows a little about them.Well he said 6 months,and they had two crews testing urd cable for the local utility.After asking a couple of questions I was informed they can tell how long the cable would last and I was told that some urd was 40 plus years old.....ok I guess Ill buy that ....but inside this transformer was not the initial urd cable....it had been replaced,and hey if thats what they are paying you to do ,why not do it? So I said,it looked to me like the old utility had plenty of money,might as well keep the contractors busy,cause thats all they have now doing urd.Well I was asked to work for them and stated that I was no longer a union member....no big deal Rep,its only 52 dollars....So I might think about the situation ,but Im so busy that it will have to wait awhile.I learned that the big boss passed away,cancer I was told,and so I asked lung cancer,and the reply was yes.Then I heard of his second in command ,which is a jerk had left........my question is this....how many of you have seen this,I know that cable they were testing wasnt nearly the oldest cable out there.Matter of fact the van/vehicle doing the testing was a company that Ive never heard of,but I will get there name and let you know.The lineman werre there to basically isolate and ground and also to do the actual hooking up to the cable....and I might add to Wait,and wait and wait.....seems pretty boring and seems like that would be a long day.:D

[Lineman North Florida]

Ran into a contracting company that I used to work for this morning,asked for a certain person and was told that he was down the street,so here goes reppy fishing for his old buddy.After finding him I asked how long has he been working for the company which is Mpt....Poot knows a little about them.Well he said 6 months,and they had two crews testing urd cable for the local utility.After asking a couple of questions I was informed they can tell how long the cable would last and I was told that some urd was 40 plus years old.....ok I guess Ill buy that ....but inside this transformer was not the initial urd cable....it had been replaced,and hey if thats what they are paying you to do ,why not do it? So I said,it looked to me like the old utility had plenty of money,might as well keep the contractors busy,cause thats all they have now doing urd.Well I was asked to work for them and stated that I was no longer a union member....no big deal Rep,its only 52 dollars....So I might think about the situation ,but Im so busy that it will have to wait awhile.I learned that the big boss passed away,cancer I was told,and so I asked lung cancer,and the reply was yes.Then I heard of his second in command ,which is a jerk had left........my question is this....how many of you have seen this,I know that cable they were testing wasnt nearly the oldest cable out there.Matter of fact the van/vehicle doing the testing was a company that Ive never heard of,but I will get there name and let you know.The lineman werre there to basically isolate and ground and also to do the actual hooking up to the cable....and I might add to Wait,and wait and wait.....seems pretty boring and seems like that would be a long day.:D

If they can tell how long the cable will last every company in the country will be hiring them to give them failure dates, personally I think that whoever told you that is full of bull.

[reppy007]

Dont get me wrong,I think the same.Could it be some kind of write off?.Knowing utilities like I know them it all makes sense hiring an outside company that knows nothing about utility equipment to advise you what you should already know.....I dont know why they just dont allow the wire to fault on its own....then fix it.......Seems like that works with poles these days....example #1.....Reppy reports a two rotten poles,one has an closed delta bank on it and one has a pole-top switch on it.Reppy says it would save time and money to replace it before they go down,since you already know they are bad.....the company says....its better to fix it later.....but who gets a call @ 330am in the morning when the poles go down? :nightmare::nightmare::nightmare:

[US & CA Tramp]

Dont get me wrong,I think the same.Could it be some kind of write off?.Knowing utilities like I know them it all makes sense hiring an outside company that knows nothing about utility equipment to advise you what you should already know.....I dont know why they just dont allow the wire to fault on its own....then fix it.......Seems like that works with poles these days....example #1.....Reppy reports a two rotten poles,one has an closed delta bank on it and one has a pole-top switch on it.Reppy says it would save time and money to replace it before they go down,since you already know they are bad.....the company says....its better to fix it later.....but who gets a call @ 330am in the morning when the poles go down? :nightmare::nightmare::nightmare:

For what is worth. (1) The cable testing sounds like a prelim to a buy out. (2) This scenario sounds like they are waiting for the pole to get blown down or fall over so they can claim it on insurance. I know companies that do just that, unless they are self insured.

[Rob]

Well Rep, Sounds like a good chance for you to earn some extra cash! As far as cable testing many utilities are doing it. It's mostly Tan-Delta testing. I think you'll find the reason for it being each company sets aside a pot of $ to replace old cable. So besides the obvious ones ( multiple failures), it's a way to gauge where to spend the money. If an old cable tests well they'll stick it on the back burner to be tested say 5 years down the road. With all the utilities out there being graded on Interruptions it's a step in the right direction. Of course it doesn't always work, like everything else!!

[reppy007]

I may be wrong ,but now days I dont think utilities give a flying $hit about being graded...unless its green and called a dollar.....Ive seen urd cable energized for the first time go bad,the jacket was blue instead of black....never seen it again.I machine can test a cable to be good and they can say it will last for 20 years ,they may be right the majority of the time,but in this business nobody is right 100% of the time.Ill make the call today and ask for the name of the company thats doing the testing.

[hotrod218]

the company that did our testing, said after they pass it it will have a 10 or 20 year gaurantee. if it fails within that period, they will pay for repairs or replacement.

[Lineman North Florida]

the company that did our testing, said after they pass it it will have a 10 or 20 year gaurantee. if it fails within that period, they will pay for repairs or replacement.

Did they inject that cable with something to make that guarantee or just from the results of their test make that guarantee?

[reppy007]

With the amounts the companies charge it wouldnt hurt a bit the replace wire that doesnt last as long as they claim,their odds are good.But what happens if ,and when they fold up and are gone from sight.....after making millions cant they file for bankruptcy and get away with that?....Not that Im a lawyer,But Id make a great $hithouse lawyer.

[Rob]

Did they inject that cable with something to make that guarantee or just from the results of their test make that guarantee?

good question LNF, the companies out there doing cable injection will guarantee the cable for 20 years. I've yet to see a testing co. Offer that

[Lineman North Florida]

good question LNF, the companies out there doing cable injection will guarantee the cable for 20 years. I've yet to see a testing co. Offer that

Yeah Rob, they came and injected a bunch of old cable on our system and placed a tag on every elbow with a number on it, if you run into a piece of that cable that is bad during troubleshooting we are supposed to take that tag off of the elbow and turn it in and they are supposed to re-imburse the company for some part of the replacement cost.

[reppy007]

This company that I saw the other day had cables hooked up to the urd primary that were identical to a radar vans type of system.The large van had computers and a screen,just like a radar van....dont know if they did any injections like they did years ago.Lots of things have changed,when these companies did their thing it was utility hands doing the standing and waiting.The other day it was contractor urd lineman doing the standing and waiting .

[reppy007]

I talked to another buddy today who works for Centerpoint Energy,he told me that he had a job for me.I didnt even want to ask,but I did.....He said they needed crews to replace guy wires....system wide,with guy strain insulators/fish....I laughed and told him why ....well remember about a year or so ago when those children were burnt by a loose guy getting into some primary.....now they going to make sure it dont happen again.....Well in that case they settled,dont know the terms but the lawyer for the family did buy a mansion...only 14 million cash.....yes I said ,Cash.Seems like they will be installing them on the systems 12 kv too......lots of work if you like chain hoist...:D