Field, Fence Line Fires Endanger Power Supply
Burning weeds and crop residue helps farmers manage their fields, but it also puts rural power supply at risk.
Two transmission poles in NIPCO's system were destroyed Nov. 16 in separate fires attributed to fence line or crop residue burning.
Potential damages from pole fires go way beyond the loss of a pole or two. The fires could have caused power outages to large areas and the fiber optic cables that carry NIPCO's system control data culd have been damaged.
One pole fire was reported the morning of Nov. 16 northeast of Modale on a line that taps power from a NIPCO main transmission line for the Clay Substation, which serves members of Harrison County Rural Electric Cooperative. While the pole had been burned almost completely through, it remained standing.
Had the pole fallen, it would have cut power to two MidAmerican Energy substations, three NIPCO substations and all of the members served from those stations, as well as power to three communities: Little Sioux, Mondamin and Blencoe. Harrison County REC received a report of the pole fire and passed that on to NIPCO. Power was re-routed along other lines so there was no disruption to electric consumers in the area.
The burned pole was replaced the following day with a 60-foot steel pole to eliminate future fire damage.
In the second incident, North West Rural Electric Cooperative received a report the evening of Nov. 16 of a pole on fire near Newkirk in Sioux County. The REC crew reported the fire to NIPCO and power was re-routed around that line section. Upon arriving at the site Thursday morning, NIPCO linemen discovered the pole was still burning and called the Hospers Fire Department to extinguish the blaze. The fire was attributed to fence line burning. Two NIPCO poles suffered minor damage in the blaze, but the third pole had major damage and fell.
The broken 50-foot pole was replaced Nov. 18 with another wooden pole. The damaged poles are part of a major transmission line carrying power from NIPCO's Eagle Substation near Hawarden, to serve electric cooperative members in Sioux and O'Brien counties.
The cost to replace a burned pole ranges from $5,000 to $6,600.
"Electric cooperative members should not have to pay the price to repair damage caused by people who are careless with fire," said Kent Pauling, NIPCO's executive vice president and general manager. NIPCO plans to bill the cost of pole replacement to the persons responsible for the fire.
In the photo below, the transmission pole near Newkirk leans severely after it was damaged by fire.
