Lamar Light Plant Completes Safety Testing

Houssin Hourieh, Lamar Light Plant Superintendent, informed the Lamar Utility Board, the annual safety testing and inspection of all bucket and digger trucks has been completed as well as other equipment such as voltage sticks, blankets and line hoses.  There was one failure to a line blanket as well as cracks noted through Unit 14’s bucket fiberglass.  All needed repairs, he said, have been completed.  The City of Lamar’s risk provider, CIRSA, was present as crews completed Hazardous Operation, Defensive Driving, Chemical Safety and Flagger Certification training.

The Light Plant finally received its 5MVA power transformers from High to Low Voltage Inc. at a cost of $173,700.  Hourieh said that in May of 2022, the Santa Fe sub transformer failed and was shipped to the company’s service center in Denver for repairs and testing.  The repaired transformer will become a spare for the plant’s 5-4KV substations.  He informed the board the PUC may conduct an audit on the Light Plant’s 37 miles of discontinued gas lines.  The superintendent said that even though PUC was informed the lines have not been in operation for some time and have zero gas content, the plant may be required to fill them with either water or nitrogen, an inert gas.  Hourieh said they may seek an ‘abandoned’ rating or classification, but because the plant still maintains ownership of the gas lines, they are responsible for safety maintenance.  He said the plant may be given as many as 12 months to act, per these findings.

Purchase orders totaling $875,151.26 were approved for payment from a total of $894,412.91.  This included $835,697.27 for the October estimate of power purchased from ARPA.  Bills totaled $390,433.61.

The low bid of $37,917.45 from Stella Jones Corporation was approved for 15, 35 foot Class 5, Western Red cedar poles and 30, 30 foot similar poles. Delivery is expected within 20 weeks.

Per Public Utility Commission regulations, the interest rate paid on utility deposits has been set at 4.93% for 2024.  It was 1.69% for 2023 and in 2022, the rate was only 0.08% while the most recently highest percentage was 5.69 for 2001.
By Russ Baldwin