Built in 1913, the Meppin-Quincy 138kV line was one of the oldest transmission lines in this utility’s system. Through the years, some of the steel members were removed for various reasons. Many structures had been altered by making all the conductor supports into floating dead ends to gain ground clearance. These locations also were missing some steel members.

To order the replacement steel from a supplier would have taken too long to get the steel produced and galvanized, delaying completion of the project. J.F. Electric proposed removing the proper size steel from structures that did not need these pieces for structural strength and installing those pieces in the structures that were missing and in need of the steel.

Crews developed a system where they removed the unneeded steel from some structures and installed them into those that needed re-enforcing during rollering and prior to the stringing process. The utility provided new bolts for the installation of the steel, allowing the project to continue.

Improper positioning of the conductors was another issue that surfaced as the crews performed their task. The line was originally configured as a double circuit 138kV line with both circuits being 300MCM copper conductors with one static in the middle of the towers. The solution that was proposed and accepted by the client involved adding a shackle to the insulator string that allowed the shoes for the conductors to be positioned properly.

Another suggestion that was accepted involved relocating some of the fiber splice box locations due to accessibility and access for maintenance. Though J.F. Electric’s original bid wasn’t among the lowest, they safely completed the project with seven days to spare using less manpower than expected.

According to the Construction Supervisor who was inspecting the work, “Inspecting J.F. Electric’s work on this is boring. There were no go-backs!”

Yet another example of being the best “value” rather than cheapest!

J.F. Electric was approached to assist/design converting an existing 345/138kV Substation to a 6 position ring bus. Work included a new 345kV line terminal, transformer position and control enclosure. A station service was not on the prints and the engineer was new to substation design/work and needed assistance.

The project General Foreman and Foreman used their vast knowledge of substations to design/build a new station service for the project, helping our client save money throughout the process by suggesting alternate methods/routes to complete the work.

Work included installing four new 345kV breakers, installing a new 345/138kV transformer, moving the existing transformer to a new position in the substation and installing new switches, buss, auxiliary equipment, control cabling, below grade ground grid and conduit.

J.F. Electric provided a project overview of cost and completion by using cost tracking and scheduling tools that made forecasting easier on our client as well as ways to reduce material and labor costs.

Key Result

This major 345kV substation project needed to be completed in a three-month time frame so that the customer would not incur fines. The project was completed two weeks ahead of time, saving the customer two weeks of outage time and helped the job come in 50% [MF2] under the estimate. The substation start-up was completed with no safety incidents and no outage delays or fines incurred by the customer. Due to the knowledge and experience of the General Foreman, Foreman and the J.F. Electric substation linemen, milestone dates were met and there were very few change orders and punch list items at the close of the project.

One of our utility clients had a 345kV Wood “H” structure replacement in an area where rock has to be drilled to set new poles and had contracted the engineering for the project to a Contract Engineering firm.

J.F. Electric’s General Foreman contacted our client and questioned the need to use “Bearing Plates” for setting the poles – which would have required drilling 48″ diameter holes. Without the bearing plates, J.F. Electric only needed to drill a 36″ hole resulting in significant client savings on material, equipment and the time needed to drill the rock holes.

In late 2015, J.F. Electric worked on a project for a utility client in Southern Illinois that involved the replacement of several 138kV Wooden “H” structures across farm fields. Upon completion, one of the larger landowners contacted our client and raved about his total satisfaction with the method of work done and the respect the crews and management displayed to him and the land. The landowner told the utility that he did not want any money whatsoever for land damage.

Through the years, a true partnership has evolved between J.F. Electric and our utility clients. Recently, J.F. Electric was contracted to work together to review 270 miles of Transmission circuits to determine the best, most effective way to install fiber optic shield wire on the existing circuits. J.F. Electric has also provided knowledge and experience to aid in the best method to upgrade an existing 138kV line that traverses through a heavy metropolitan area of St. Louis County, which includes a river crossing and hard to access easements (Berkeley-Sioux Line).