Lansdale Electric

If you've been following our page for a while, you've probably seen some pole transfer posts. But have you seen a BIRD'S EYE VIEW of a pole transfer?? Doubt it. So let's change that! We got some nice shots with our drone of the line crew changing out a pole on Derstine Ave today.

Today is National Lineman Appreciation Day! We're so thankful for the wonderful team of linemen we work with every day. How will you #ThankALineman today?

Earlier tonight, two of our lineman got called in by Fairmount Fire Company - Lansdale, Pennsylvania for assistance on Derstine Ave. A branch was rubbing against a primary wire and started to burn. Our linemen were able to clear around the primary wire. Good thing they got there when they did, look how much it had already burned through the branch!

A rare sighting of the Traffic Light Fairy changing out dead bulbs, captured last Thursday! A report came in about a green light being out at 7th and Broad last week, so the Traffic Light Fairy, aka Eddie, went out to install some new LED bulbs. That second picture really puts in perspective how big these lights are, around the same size as Eddie's head!

Big news! As part of our solar project, we're extending an opportunity to our residents to generate their own electricity in a convenient wearable form! Warning: Each shirt weighs about 40 pounds, and is not very flexible, so it is not suggested for wear while you actually do things, and in order for the solar panel to fit on a hat, they had to be very small, and will only generate enough electricity for the equivalent of a 15 minute cell phone charge for every 10 hours of direct sunlight.

In addition to being recognized as a Platinum level Reliable Public Power Provider, Lansdale Electric has also been recognized for exceptional electric reliability in 2020! We track outages and the time it takes to get the power back on, and Lansdale Electric is in the top 25th percentile for reliability!

Just another day in the electric department, setting poles and moving over services to the new pole. Except this time there was a bit of a snag in the whole, setting the pole part. There maayyyy have been a sewer pipe in the way of where our new pole was placed. Lucky for us, we know the right people to help fix the situation! Public Works helped open up the hole before the Treatment Plant guys came down to fix the sewer pipe. Oops.

For the 6th year in a row, Lansdale has successfully made it through the rigorous application process to be recognized as a Reliable Public Power Provider! Additionally, we have been awarded Platinum level designation this year, a step above our previous Gold level designation! The RP3 designation, which last 3 years, recognizes public power utilities that demonstrate proficiency in four key disciplines: reliability, safety, workforce development, and system improvement. Lansdale Electric is always striving to safely and reliably deliver power to every one of our customers, so it is nice to be recognized on a national level for our hard work!

With the winds this afternoon please be sure to report any electrical issues related to our blustery conditions at 215-361-8371 until 3:30pm. After 3:30PM please call the Nonemergency Police line at 215-368-1801. As always please remember if see an emergency dial 911. Be safe and enjoy the warm weather!

There's got to be some kind of employee of the month joke here, right? Something about digging yourself in too deep a hole? Idk I'm off my game. Any suggestions?

It's a beautiful day to upgrade an electric service! The line crew started work this morning to upgrade the service at the Reporter building, and bring it up to today's standards. They'll be working all week to set a new pole and rework the transformers to help the building owner's dreams for the building become a reality.

Every year, we get testing done on our protective line hardware done by a mobile testing unit from Irby. They test our rubber blankets, rubber hoses, and polymer hoses, which we use to cover our wires to protect the construction workers or tree trimmers that are working near our wires. Irby puts our protective hardware over a copper wire and runs 17,000 V through it to check for any faults. This time some of our protective hardware did fail, as shown in the last two pictures. They likely had some dents or nicks in them, which was enough to allow electricity pass through it. If that happened in a real life situation, it could easily become a deadly situation, which is why doing this testing annually is so important.

Don't forget to put your undecorated trees on the curb by 6 am this Saturday (1/9) so the reverse Santas in Public Works can pick them up and recycle them. If you don't get your tree out on time, you can bring your tree to the utilities complex on W 9th St. And if you miss an ornament or two, maybe we'll scoop them up for our office tree. That is how we got most of our ornaments after all.

Our smart metering system can be a literal lifesaver. Recently, Old Man Pulli was doing his regular metering software check, and had a warning. A meter had met a temperature threshold of 180 degrees, which called for a visit to the meter. The meter base and service entry cable were hot to the touch, and when Meter Foreman Joe opened it up, his rubber glove melted. The connection between the prong and the jaws the meter plugs into had gotten loose, which caused arcing. It got so hot that the plastic base of the meter started to bubble. This customers meter socket could have burst into flames at any moment. Thanks to our smart metering system, we were notified of this hazard, and were able to prevent any further issue. This issue is caused by aging equipment like this old aluminum meter base pictured.

This is an oil circuit breaker at the main substation. It protects the transmission circuit that serves the West Ward. The black insulator you see should be gray like the others, and the black crusty pipe should be shiny copper. After over 35 years of protecting our equipment, and who knows how many lightning strikes and surges, it finally met it's end, causing this morning's outage. It exploded into a million little pieces that landed over 250 feet away.

Final steps are being taken to allow the electric services building to generate electricity with the sun! We also have a back up generator installed that will keep business continuity 24/7/365 in the event of a power outage, along with our radio and camera system! In a few short weeks the Borough will once again generate electricity, only this time leaving less of a carbon footprint.

Now that we've officially gotten our first snow of the season, keep in mind these tips to keep your house well insulated and keep those electric bills low!

What a beautiful scene to show off our solar array. And though they're not generating any electricity yet, they are officially tracking the sun! Getting closer every day!

Our solar project has hit a huge milestone, with the completion of the first solar array! The project as a whole is 26 solar arrays, each about 40 ft long by 15 ft wide by 12 feet tall. Once the full project is completed, Lansdale will be the home of the largest dual axis solar array on the east coast!

And now for the moment we've all been waiting for! Thanks for the magic Santa, now Railroad Plaza looks PERFECT!

Here's the culprit for this morning's outage. The insulator and lightning arrestor look pretty bad to us, but there's also a comparison picture of an in tact insulator compared to the one that failed today for the less trained eye.

Shoutout to our line crew for cutting down, setting up, and decorating this year's tree! Make sure to attend this year's virtual tree lighting this Friday, December 4th at 6:30. With rain in Friday's forecast, it's a great way to still watch the tree lighting, while staying warm and dry!

We are aware of outages. While the line crew was doing work, they came across an insulator that was already broken in the area that we were unaware of. It caused a large flash, causing a temporary service interruption. In order to safely work to fix this, power has to be shut off. The line crew is working to fix the broken insulator and get power back on as soon as possible. Our building is affected by this outage also, so we currently do not have power, and therefore our phones don't work either. We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience as the line crew works to create a safe working situation.

Today's weather has nicely reflected our feelings on coming back to work after a long weekend. But be careful today, as we're now under a tornado watch. REMINDER! Our work day ends at 3:30, so please call Lansdale Borough Police Department to report down wires or a power outage so that they can contact our on call staff.

While looking through albums full of pictures of Lansdale Electric days past, we found these gems, and many more like them. Good to know linemen's picture taking skills haven't changed much over the last 40-60 years.

The solar project is now over 90% complete! We were able to capture some beautiful pictures of the entire solar array with our drone. Once all the panels are up and running, Lansdale will be home to the largest dual axis solar array on the east coast. We'd like to think that's something for Lansdale to be pretty proud of.

As our Lansdale Electric history lesson moves into recent history, we get to see some pictures of Baby Lineman Andy, back before he became Superintendent Krauss. Modern era Lansdale Electric has been BUSY. We've been in the process of updating all of (and replacing some of) our unit substations, increasing the MVA on them, just as we did in the 70's. We've been trying to keep up with all the development in town. We completed a ring of fiber around the town that all Borough bu...ildings are running off of now. We installed electric vehicle chargers for residents and visitors to use for free. Now we continue to make progress by getting solar panels. And we can't wait to see what kinds progress we will continue to make! Really though, we couldn't celebrate #PublicPowerWeek without thanking all of those who support us. So to all of the Lansdale residents and businesses, thank you with our whole hearts. Without your support, we wouldn't be able to provide the reliable electric that you've come to expect. See more

Included in our solar project is an update to the Wastewater Treatment Plant's electric supply system. They will be pulling electricity from a large chunk of our solar arrays, as well as using a new, updated, incoming electrical system, including transformer and switchgear. Today the crew pulled wire that will be able to handle the new, higher amperage that the new system delivers. The video initially shows the wire being pulled underground in an electric manhole, and transitions above ground, to the truck pulling the wire.

And #PublicPowerWeek continues! 1984 brought about the demolition of the original generating station, more than a decade after it wasn't used for generating anymore. As the town continued to grow, and continued to have higher demand needs, more unit substations were needed. Fourth Street Sub was added in the 80's, and Lion Sub in the 90's. We also added another primary circuit running from our main substation, so that we now have the East Circuit, the West Circuit, and the Third Circuit. Because clearly Lansdale Electric of the early 90's was very creative. Honestly though, the exciting part of Lansdale Electric is finding pictures like this last one with Old Man Pulli in them, back when he wasn't such an old man. Can you believe he's worked here for 46 years? Oof. That's longer than most of our linemen have even been alive.

Tonight's weather forecast includes predictions of strong winds. As a reminder, if you lose power, contact Lansdale Borough Police Department at 215-368-1801 so they can get in contact with our on call crew. And remember, stay safe and steer clear of any wires laying on the ground.

ATTENTION: Leaf pick up for Section 4 (south of E Main St and east of S Broad St) has been postponed until Saturday the 14th. You can leave your bags out until then, it's ok if they're wet.

Our celebration of #PUblicPowerWeek moves into the 1970's today, which were another big time for Lansdale Electric. This was the decade where we stopped generating our own electricity. In 1972, we entered into our purchase power agreement with Philadelphia Electric, better known now as PECO. Two years later, we upgraded our unit substations, and installed a few new ones, including our Ninth St Sub. In the mid-late 70's, we started to move our offices out of the original building near what is now the Madison Lansdale Station Apartments. In 1978, our current building was dedicated, and it pretty much hasn't changed since

Attention: This Saturday, November 14th, there will be some scheduled outages at the addresses listed below in order to perform routine maintenance. All of the locations below have received, or will soon receive, a notice of the scheduled outage. If you have any questions, please feel free to call us during business hours tomorrow (Friday) between 7 am and 3:30 pm at 215-361-8371.

Lansdale Borough offices will be closed tomorrow in honor of Veteran's Day. As a reminder, if you have a power outage or other serious electrical issue during times when our offices are closed, contact Lansdale Borough Police Department, and they'll reach out to our on call staff to come in and fix the issue.

Join us as we continue to celebrate #PublicPowerWeek by celebrating how Lansdale Electric became the public power provider you know us as today. Lansdale's power demands became a bit too big for it's britches in the 1950's. We started purchasing power from an outside provider in 1952 to provide excess demand. In 1957, a huge upgrade and expansion to it's facilities, adding a 12,500 kW unit, this time steam powered. We actually still have the plaque dedicating this addition. It hangs in our office, right as you walk in, as a reminder of how far we've come.

Let's kick off #PublicPowerWeek by going waaayyyy back in time, to the very beginning of Lansdale Electric. In 1898, the Borough purchased the Godshall Plant, bringing the Lansdale Light Plant into existence. We started as a full service electric department, generating electricity using coal. Between the department's conception and 1926, three huge upgrades happened. A second electric plant was built in 1916, a 1000 kW turbo generator was added in 1920, and a 3000 kW turbo generator added in 1926. All of these upgrades were done in order to keep up with electrical demand by Lansdale businesses and residents. Turns out, a growing, thriving town would continue to need more upgrades and improvements though!

This week is #PublicPowerWeek! Lansdale Electric is one of over 2,000 public power utilities that provide electricity to over 49 million people in the US. While we celebrate public power providers across the country this week, we thought this would be a great opportunity to celebrate Lansdale Electric's history. We'll start from the very beginning, all the way back in 1898, and work our way up to present day and some of our current projects. So keep an eye out this week for some interesting historical facts about your favorite public power provider!

This week, Patriot Tree Surgeons are out in the neighborhood of Yorktown St and Monticello Pl clearing branches around the power lines. If they're working on your property, you will have already gotten a door hanger with information, but please feel free to call us if you have any questions about the work they're doing.

A couple of the linemen have been doing some deep dives through their pictures of old Lansdale Electric jobs, so how about a little #ThrowbackThursday? Way back when the Williamson Square townhomes were being built, we had a bit of a situation with one of the transformer boxes. Foreman Joe was trying to fix it, and got himself pretty stuck in there. Good thing Lineman Matt was there to help him out! After capturing it on camera though of course.

It's a beautiful day to show off our solar array! All 20 arrays at the Wastewater Treatment Plant are installed, and today they started installing the 6 arrays that are going in next to our building. It's one thing to know each individual array is 12 ft tall, 40 long, and 15 ft wide, but it's quite another to see how big they really are.

This coming Saturday (Oct 31st ), we have scheduled outages to do maintenance on transformers. All of these locations will receive, or have already received a paper notice about these scheduled outages. These are not the first weekend outages we've had in the last couple months. Normally, these jobs would be scheduled during the week, but in order to keep the power on for all those working from home and doing virtual learning, we've been trying to do them on the weekends. We know that no power outage is convenient, but this maintenance is necessary, so we're trying to schedule them at times when it's the least inconvenient.

Utility pole anatomy has the higher voltage (primary) wires higher on the pole, with limitations of how close it can get to the lower voltage (secondary) wires beneath it. This pole on Winding Rd had the primary wires getting close to the secondary wires, so the line crew went to check it out and make it safe again. Turns out the top 2 feet of the pole had been rotting away, causing the ridge pin that was holding the primary, to droop. So the guys chopped off the top of the pole, wrapped it up, replaced the ridge pin, and now it's all fixed up real nice.