ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area PoCo worker killed

Had some bad weather last nite as a result of Hurricane Ivan. Just got word this morning that one of our local POCO guys was killed while trying to restore power.

Don't know any details right now.

He was a trouble-shooter,did disconnects/reconnects for service changes etc. He was also a friend whom I'd worked with many times on service changes.

If I can get more details,I'll post them.

Russell

Russell, I'm sorry to hear that. We had the same weather and Asheville is flooded again. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 without power, I hope the rest of lineman working this get through safely.

Roger

The story I'm gettin' is that someone had a generator backfeeding a breaker panel in their house,without a transfer switch of course.

Don't know if it's true yet.

Russell

If in fact he did not have a transfer switch, and was backfeeding the system, they should do everything they can to find the generator person, and throw an involuntary manslaughter charge on them.

My neighbor has the entire backside of his roof lined with solar panels. His meter literally spins backwards. I certainly hope he's got something that automatically stops feeding the poco if the poco loses power.

[This message has been edited by royta (edited 09-17-2004).]

We have a rule that all linemen are supposed to adhere to and that is "If it is not grounded, it is not dead!" This is the reason for that rule. It is of no value at this point to anyone that knew him and it is a sad day when a tragedy like this happens. That is why we fight for everyone to use some sort of failsafe device to hook up generators.

I know that there are a lot of jacklegs and some knowledgeable electricians that will hook up a dryer or range receptacle to back feed a service. It works fine until someone doesn't understand how to do the switching. That is when someone gets killed.

As far as solar cells are concerned, if installed properly, they need the presence of power to operate. In other words, if you lose power, you will lose all of it even if the solar cells are working. I am shooting from the lip on that one, please correct me if I am wrong.

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Charlie Eldridge, Indianapolis, Utility Power Guy

I confirmed it today when I talked to his partner. A backfed generator was responsible.

I understand charges are being filed against the Homeowner.


Russell

Let's hope the charges stick, and Harry Homeowner is given a good long time to contemplate his stupidity....

Once he gets out, he should be sentenced to a lifetime of 10X electric bills, with the proceeds going to the family of the lineman he killed.

Ga.Sparky,
What city are you located in? Are there any verifable press reports of this?
This backfeeding thing comes up a lot on various [DIY] forums and it would be good to be able to cite a prooof that what we all fear actually does happen.
~Peter

I'm in Young Harris Ga. Peter. The only press on it will probably be in our local weekly Newspaper.

Russell.

[This message has been edited by ga.sparky56 (edited 09-19-2004).]