Utility to turn on new power lines

NORTHWEST GLENDALE — Seven miles of new power transmission lines that span the Verdugo Mountains are scheduled to be activated today, providing more stability to the northern power grid and ending what utility officials said was one of their most challenging electrical projects ever.

At $5.9 million, Glendale Water & Power’s electrical department has had more expensive projects, but few have rivaled the newly completed 14-tower transmission line replacement in terms of scope and scale because of steep terrain that offered limited access, said Dean Fernandez, a project manager for the utility.

“This is big, as far as the city of Glendale is concerned,” he said.

Work on replacing the lines began in May 2007, two years after they were severely damaged in a lightning storm. In December, helicopters dropped equipment and crews at remote towers that were inaccessible by land along the 3-mile stretch over the Verdugo Mountains.

Crews also installed wire caging containing rocks and soil at tower footings along the mountainous strip to reinforce the steel structures against water- and vegetation-related erosion. The 14 towers that hold up the 7-mile-long transmission lines were erected in 1955.

On Thursday, Glendale Water & Power electricians performed final testing on the system to make sure about 35,000 volts of electricity were flowing properly through the lines between the Montrose and Bel-Aire substations.

Barring any major glitches during testing, station operator Jeff Barker said the lines would become part of the power grid today and start serving customers.

He and his electricians put themselves at risk of electrocution thousands of times more powerful than a simple light socket when testing the electricity’s flow, Barker said.

“It is a little bit spooky,” Barker said as he waited for a piece of testing equipment at the Montrose station on Thursday, the steady hum of high voltage transmitters in the background. “It doesn’t sound friendly.”

The lines can carry 69,000 volts of electricity and feed customers through the Glorietta, Western, Bel-Aire and Montrose substations in north Glendale.

The extra capacity will be able to handle future growth and demand, Fernandez said, but the key component of the new transmission lines will be redundancy in the power grid’s backup system.

“We’re very glad that we now have the northern part of the electrical system loop re-established,” he said. “It will increase the reliability of the overall system.”

Of the 14 power outages in January, nine affected electrical feeders that supply north Glendale customers, according to a city report.

The re-established transmission lines will provide a third backup route for power administrators to use, Fernandez said.

In that sense, the utility is welcoming the full plate of options, said Ramon Abueg, the city’s electrical system administrator.

“It’s definitely been one of the most challenging projects,” he said. “The line is very important to us.”