When you’re dealing with nearly 70,000 utility poles, 5,756 miles of both overhead and underground lines, and 18 substations, upgrading an electric distribution system sounds like a daunting task. And Josh Tepen says it is … but it’s also exciting. Tepen would know; he serves as Cuivre River Electric Cooperative’s supervisor of material management, whose role is managing and making sure CREC has everything they need for improvements.
“While it’s a big challenge in terms of workload and lots of planning, completing the first year of a multi-year construction work plan is pretty satisfying,” Tepen says.
Since the end of 2022, CREC has been steadily working through a list of improvements to the co-op’s substations, poles, lines, and more, which ultimately will improve reliability. CREC President/CEO Doug Tracy emphasized this goal in his 2023 annual meeting remarks: “The importance of reliable power cannot be overstated; our attention remains on maintaining and enhancing it.”
In addition to strengthening our system, Marvin Peasel, CREC’s manager of operations, said that improvements will also help accommodate the increasing demand for electricity as housing and commercial development continue to grow in CREC’s service area.
“This assists us going into the future, “Peasel said, “also supporting things like the increase of electric vehicle chargers as more and more EVs are appearing on the road.”
This past year, the Wright City (Warren County) substation received some much-needed attention. Some 200 poles in the area were replaced. Rotting wood, mostly due to sheer age, can be a threat to the integrity of the pole.
“We have some poles that are original to the system’s beginnings in 1941,” Tepen said.
In other cases, rotting poles may have been due to just a bad batch of wood or treatment. Thanks to pole inspections and the help of drones, CREC identifies these poles before they become an issue and tags them for replacement.
Other work includes new circuits and wire conversion, to help with higher voltage. And with the expansion of internet service providers, it’s crucial to ensure that CREC poles can handle the additional lines from those companies that serve our area.
As we move into 2024, CREC will be changing out another 200 poles, with another 500 slated for replacement in the next phase of improvements. Work on an estimated 25 miles of wire conversion and circuits related to substations Lost Creek (Warren County), Hawk Point, Meister (Lincoln County), and Cyrene (Pike County) are also on the schedule.
Tepen says the biggest challenges of this project are weather, traffic, and materials. Although the COVID pandemic came to an end, difficulty with obtaining basic materials and supplies did not. Items once readily available must now be ordered years in advance to ensure CREC has them on schedule.
Members need to know that implementing CREC’s system improvement plan is in addition to the co-op’s regular maintenance and care of its system and responding to outages. Because more crews are working on the roadsides, members are encouraged to be more aware when driving and slow down when passing them.
“We appreciate everyone’s patience as we continue to progress through our plan,” Tepen said.