GRIDLINESIN THIS ISSUE

Northpower team avoids high potential safety incident 1

Wanganui flood causes major slips in June 2

ABB’s Lisa Albiston receives the “Industry Aspiring Star” award for Women in Infrastructure 3

Emergency response efforts recognised 3

Transformer water cooling system 4

Innovative solution provides safety in action 5

Gas Grab device 5

Red Cross key rings 5

South Island line crews push through extreme weather 6

Northpower team avoids high potential safety incidentOn 30 April 2015, a team from Northpower managed to avoid what could have been a serious incident when they determined that the circuit they had been asked to work on, was not the circuit they had an Access Permit for. The circuit they were about to start work on was still live. As well as the serious safety implications, this would most likely have meant a loss of supply if they had applied earths on to a live circuit.

The initial project scope, delivered six months before the incident, had identified the incorrect circuit for work as they were using outdated asset information. Instead of using the latest Single Line Drawings, the project managers used the Transmission Line Schematic drawings. The planning and outage request did not pick up the incorrect circuit configuration (that had been changed several years previously) due to the use of uncontrolled documents.

The Access Permit was granted for circuit NAP-OKI-2, but it should have been for NAP-WRK-2, meaning that the team would have been working on a live line. Luckily, the Northpower team carried out the correct checks before the work started and Thomas Raos confirmed that the incorrect circuit was identified in the Access Permit.

Thanks to the diligent and thorough nature of the Northpower team, work stopped immediately and an investigation started to determine the root cause of the incident – great work team!

SEPTEMBER 2015 ISSUE 58

Diagram of the incorrect circuit, correct circuit and worksite.

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Alison Andrew

Chief Executive

OUR KEYS

TO LIFE1 Basic Rule – Live unless proven dead

2 Hazard Identification

3 Job Briefing

4 Minimum Approach Distance (MAD)

5 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

6 Safe Vehicle Operation

ALL TRANSPOWER STAFF AND

CONTRACTORS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR

WORKING SAFELY AND ENCOURAGING

SAFE BEHAVIOURS IN OTHERS

#1 Basic Rule

Live unless proven dead

Approximate location of worksite

Access permit should have been requested & issued for this circuit

Access permit Requested (NP) on this circuit & issued to field staff

CORRECT CIRCUIT INCORRECT CIRCUIT

48

July 2014 - Latest version of SLD

GRIDLINES 58 SEPTEMBER 20152

Wanganui flood causes major slips in June

Bunnythorpe – Brunswick Asset (220 kV) Tower 67 in the Rangitikei River Flood Plain 9 (has 20 metre river piled foundations).

Bunnythorpe – Wanganui Asset (110 kV) Tower 64 on the Rangitikei River Flood Plain.

Pi-Pole 35 on Wanganui – Waverley circuit on the outskirts of Wanganui. Linemen complete the move of the cross-arm by three metres on Structure 36, with Structure 35 in the foreground. (Insert) extent of slip around Structure 35).

During the major weather event in June which caused extensive flooding and slips in the Wanganui region, Transpower’s assets remained in service. Considered to be a one in 83-year storm, Wanganui was the worst hit, with Powerco unable to take supply from Brunswick due to slips causing damage to poles. A number of our service providers helped to keep power onto the region including an ABB maintenance switcher who remained in Wanganui over the weekend to assist with switching and the Electrix Lines Group in Palmerston North used a helicopter to survey the lines.

The structure of immediate concern was Pi-Pole 35 on the Wanganui – Stratford Asset (Wanganui - Waverley Circuit 110 kV) due to slips on either side of the pole structure and a loss of ground cover on one pole foundation. The Pi-Pole spans 34-35 houses, and has an 11 kV Powerco line and road crossing within the span.

A second helicopter was used to take Electrix engineers and a consultant to review the site, while the first helicopter continued on its survey. It was concluded that, unless there was more rain, the pole would be safe until a Geotechnical Engineer could undertake a detailed site assessment.

In the interim the circuit was removed from service and earthed at Wanganui and Waverley along with portable earths applied either side of the slip. Powerco and the Wanganui Civil Defence were advised.

On Monday 22 June, John Wilson took the lead in looking at solutions for Pi-Pole 35, working with Electrix, AECOM, Steve McAdams, Matt Copland and Simon Leitch. Once the AECOM Geotechnical Engineer had been to the site, the immediate action was to tie both poles together with a wire strop.

The best interim option was to plan on removing both poles, move the cross-arm on Pi-Pole 36 on the top of the hill three metres higher, and cut any trees in the new span swing distance. This work was undertaken the following week and a longer term solution is being worked through.

Bunnythorpe – Brunswick (220kV) Tower 184.

GRIDLINES 58 SEPTEMBER 20153

Lisa was presented the award by NASA astronaut Wendy Lawrence, who was keynote speaker at the event.

Emergency response efforts recognisedThe quality and frequency of First Aid training at Electronet was beneficial in providing three of our employees with the confidence and skills to react to an emergency situation in May.

At a Toolbox Meeting held in Nelson on 17 August, Bill Nicholls, Stu Cunningham and Connor Karena were praised for their efforts in assisting and comforting a contractor who was injured whilst he was unloading a drill rig off a transporter.

ElectroNet Chief Executive, Rob Caldwell, and Transpower Safety Manager, Paul Simpson, both talked about the importance of safety and the aim to have everyone go home safe and sound at the end of every working day. But when things went wrong, it was reassuring to know there were people in the business who could assist with confidence.

Rob and Paul both praised the actions taken by the workers in what must have been a very stressful situation. The workers had calmly comforted the injured contractor and ensured he was kept warm to reduce the risk of shock. Due to the remoteness of the worksite, one member of the work party was positioned at a turnoff where he could meet and direct the ambulance.

The contractor, who is still recovering from his injuries, also spoke at the Toolbox Meeting, thanking the workers for their assistance on the day. He said that he can remember feeling reassured that he was being well taken care of. No one was panicking and this had a calming effect, resulting in him realising he was going to be OK.

Unfortunately, Connor Karena was away on leave on the day of the Toolbox Meeting.

ElectroNet Chief Executive – Rob Caldwell, Stu Cunningham and Bill Nicholls (Connor Karena – insert).

ABB’s Lisa Albiston receives the “Industry Aspiring Star” award for Women in Infrastructure ABB’s Technical Team Leader for Power Systems was recently honoured by Connexis.

Lisa Albiston, Technical Team Leader for ABB’s Power Systems team, was the worthy winner of the “Industry Aspiring Star” award at the Connexis event held on 22 June 2015 in Wellington for the celebration of Women in Infrastructure.

“Lisa originally joined the electricity supply industry through the ESAP programme and has shown outstanding skill, attitude and leadership throughout her career. Today, she leads a team of power technicians for ABB Hamilton. She has shown exemplary behaviour with regards to mentoring within her company and is actively supportive of Connexis objectives through her involvement in a number of initiatives. Her vision for the future of our industry is contagious,” said Helmut Modlik, Connexis Chief Executive.

Connexis, New Zealand’s infrastructure industry training organisation, was established in October 2013 through the merger of ESITO (Electricity Supply Industry Training Organisation) and Infratrain (a civil construction industry training organisation) to help build a skilled workforce to meet the country’s present and future infrastructure needs. Connexis launched the inaugural Women in Infrastructure Awards to recognise women that are making a difference within the industry, leading and serving as inspiration to others and considered as valuable team members by their respective organisations.

GRIDLINES 58 SEPTEMBER 2015 4

Water running down radiator.T5 with its water cooling system during the T3 outage.

Transformer water cooling systemAn inventive solution which allowed a transformer replacement to go ahead with minimal disruption to the normal load.

The Ashley transformer replacement project was a combination of several major and minor capital projects at the 66/11 kV Ashley substation, 30km north of Christchurch city. The projects were bundled to fast-track completion for Transpower’s Regulatory Control Period 1(RCP1), customer requirements, and efficiency gains. The works comprised two transformer replacements, a new 11 kV indoor switchboard, an arc-flash detection system retrofit, protection upgrade, and several primary equipment replacements.

There were some existing challenges with the project, such as:

� Fast-tracking design, procurement and construction for RCP1 and customer requirements.

� Bundling several major projects: two transformer replacements, a new switchboard, an arc-flash retrofit, a protection upgrade, and several primary equipment replacements.

� Coordinating work streams in parallel at a small site across multiple construction areas with independent phasing, live equipment, constrained access and space, and numerous work parties.

� Managing resources shared with other major RCP1 projects.

Ashley substation’s only supply load is to an industrial customer – the Daiken MDF factory. This meant that the substation needed to sustain a high load, 24/7 with no major peaks or troughs. This load had recently climbed above the maximum rating of either of the two 10MW transformer units (to as high as 13.8MW).

To replace the first transformer (T3), a 12-day outage was required on T3. With no load on T3, in-service T5 would operate above its maximum rating if Daiken did not reduce load – a significant risk to the end-of-life transformer.

Transpower engaged Daiken and local lines company, Mainpower to discuss how load could be managed to minimise the risk to T5 and economic impact on Daiken. Internally, Transpower also collaborated across different teams to determine the best solution for all stakeholders:

� Grid Projects coordinated internal efforts and determined a load management plan with Daiken and Transpower teams.

� Grid Performance engineers analysed the transformer rating and determined a water-cooling system could allow Daiken to operate normally if the system kept the transformer’s temperature sufficiently low. They then installed a SCADA integrated temperature- monitoring system with the help of the service provider and system modelling.

� National Works Planning coordinated the outages.

� System operations accepted a temporary rating increase of the transformer.

� Grid Operations agreed to monitor load and transformer oil temperature and notify onsite/call-out staff when the cooling system was required.

The service provider, Grid Development, Grid Performance, Grid Operations and Grid Projects all worked to develop a water-cooling system for T5. They created a smart, simple, and robust system with adequate redundancy to ensure reliability over long periods of operation (up to 8 hours per day). A trial outage proved the effectiveness of the cooling system to ensure it would work in the main 12-day outage. With the cooling system running well, the main outage proceeded with no disruption to normal Daiken operations – an excellent outcome.

This collaboration was a perfect demonstration of Transpower values and we would like to thank everyone involved in making this a successful project.

GRIDLINES 58 SEPTEMBER 20155

Greg Aston from the Electrix Taupo team designed and manufactured an innovative solution to a problem faced by the team.

The requirement was to drill new holes in a substation gantry to fit channel steel on the underside of a 110 kV gantry.

The difficulty was getting a sufficient mounting area for a magnetic base drill. Using a magnetic based drill press is standard procedure for this type of work. A hand-held electric drill would be considered a high risk method, in terms of personnel and equipment damage.

The solution Greg designed and manufactured was a moveable drill mounting bracket, this clamped to the gantry to provide the necessary full magnetic clamp with the cutting head in the required position. The mounting bracket can be fitted in both the horizontal and vertical positions, is held in place by G clamps and gives the flexibility to move to most parts of the inside of a standard size switchyard steel gantry.

This is a great example of an elegant and simple solution that can easily provide a safer method for everyone involved.

Gas Grab deviceFollowing the issue of Gas Grab devices as part of the Transpower supplied SF6 kits, ElectroNet has introduced the use of Gas Grab devices to assist with the lifting and manoeuvring of all of their gas cylinders over 7 inches.

Gas cylinders, even when empty, can be difficult to manoeuvre. This device makes the lifting of the cylinders more easily managed, and should lower the risk of injury associated with the handling of gas cylinders.

For more information on the device, visit www.gasgrab.com

Innovative solution provides safety in action

Red Cross key ringsAt a recent First Aid/CPR training, the Red Cross trainer commented that there is an increased risk of infection within New Zealand from HIV and Hepatitis. As a result, every employee of ElectroNet was gifted a key ring which contains a mask and gloves – for ready access, should they come across an accident of any nature while travelling. Great idea!

GRIDLINES 58 SEPTEMBER 20156

Make GRIDLINES YOURS! If you have a story you’d like to share we’d love to hear from you! Email the editorial team: gridlines@transpower.co.nz and remember to include photos!

South Island line crews push through extreme weather

South Island line crews pushed through extreme weather to restore power.

Pockets of extreme weather, triggering a raft of infrastructure service interruptions across the country over the winter period, has seen Transfield Services fault response crews in its electrical services business working in harsh conditions to restore utility connections.

In mid-June, heavy snowfalls blanketed much of Canterbury and Southland, with overnight temperatures dropping to minus 20 degrees Celsius in places. The snowfall triggered a high volume of outages, with Transfield Services’ Lines crews called out to respond to faults on the Transpower network – much of the work taking place over an entire weekend.

Following transmission outages in the Canterbury region, helicopter patrols

of Transpower’s SL1 transmission lines identified multiple spans with heavy snow loading - resulting in phase-to-phase contact, conductor breakages and ground clearances reduced to five metres in some instances.

“There is always pressure to restore lines during outages,” says Transfield National Lines Manager Transmission, Mike Hellyer. “We are fortunate that Transpower takes a pragmatic view on the time it takes to make these repairs so that safety is not compromised – particularly in instances where our crews are working in hazardous conditions caused by the heavy snowfalls.”

Christchurch-based Lines Contract Manager Jim Hastie said multiple crews were mobilised, over the course of three days,

from Islington and Timaru depots to repair pole arms, broken conductors and install temporary tower arms on the SL1 network.

“Repairs undertaken during this event were only those deemed urgent in returning lines back to service,” he explained. “Given the restoration response spanned 4-5 days, close monitoring of our crews was required. Aside from extremely difficult environmental conditions, a lot of focus was placed on making sure that we kept an eye on our crews’ fatigue levels.

“Led by Project Manager Mike O’Brien and Depot Supervisors Andrew Middlemiss and Marshall Stoddart, our teams completed all of the work with zero injuries and zero incidents – a fantastic result given the weather conditions and distances covered.”