Lamar Utilities Board hears report of wind storm damage at March 25 meeting

Damage from recent wind storms

The board approved purchase orders 630705 through 630740 for $100,678.88.  A large item requiring board approval was to Tri County Ford for the purchase of a 2025 ¾ ton pickup truck.  Annual crane inspections accounted for another $4,775.30, annual membership dues to Employers Council Services totaled $3,675, quarterly PUC administration fees to the Colorado Department of Revenue were $3,716 and utilities to Atmos Energy accounted for $4,519.77.  The rest of the orders were miscellaneous charges.  Bills totaling $687,945.34 were approved, the largest of which was from ARPA in the amount of $570,137.89.

Bid #2026 for pole and pad mount transformers was awarded to T&R Electric for $50,500.  Eleven bids had been submitted and 3 were received back, the lowest of which was the one from T&R, which came in significantly lower than the other two.  Bid #2061 for line material and hardware was awarded to Western United for $17,644.22.  Five bids were submitted for this with four being returned.  Western United was the lowest bidder and had the shortest delivery date as well.

Superintendent Hourieh’s System Operating Report stated that sales of electricity through February of 2025 are down approximately 1.4% when compared to the same period of time in 2024.  Residential sales were up approximately 1%, irrigations sales were down approximately 17.24% and commercial/industrial sales were down approximately 2.71%.  These three customer classes represent an estimated 96% of total system sales.  The line crew completed the replacement of a single phase, 4kv, 250 KVA voltage regulator at the Santa Fe Substation that had failed.  The replacement required de-energizing the entire sub and re-routing circuit loads for approximately 5 hours.  The process went well without any power interruptions to customers.

Broken stack at old power plant from wind damage

Work done to repair equipment damaged by wind storm

The report further stated that on the evening of March 17^th, the system was impacted by a high wind storm that caused widespread power outages.  The impact of the storm was had hit on the east end 25 KVcircuit where it tripped open multiple times to clear line faults.  Crews worked throughout the night isolating the faulted areas.  A tree fell on the main line and 2 failed power poles, one with three transformer banks.  The outage affected Bristol, Hartman, and Holly areas, lasting about 9 hours.  The storm also caused 17 poles to fail on the 69 KV line west in the area of County Road JJ and Road 26.  The storm caused a loss of 22 total poles. Another high wind storm on Friday, March 14^th caused one stack to break at the base on the roof of the old power plant.  A local contractor and a crane company were called in to remove the failed stack.

By: Barbara Crimond