• News Center
• :
• About Us
• :
• Electricity
• :
• Projects
• :
• Gasification
• :
• Buy and Sell
• :
• Legislation
• :
• Environment

• Events
• :
• Media Resources
• :
• Publications

• Annual Report
• :
• Basin Today Magazine
• :
• CEO Talk
• :
• Fact Sheets
• :
• Feature Articles
• :
• News About Us
• :
• News Briefs
• :
• News Releases
• :
• The Flip Side blog

Transmission line returned to service

Basin Electric's 345-kV line from Antelope Valley Station to a Huron, SD, substation was returned to service June 20.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative - June 25, 2010

Electricity is once again flowing through a major transmission line damaged by a tornado. The 345-kilovolt line that carries electricity from Basin Electric’s Antelope Valley Station near Beulah, ND, to a substation near Huron, SD, was returned to service the evening of June 20.

TSM crews set a new tower to replace one destroyed by a tornado on May 22.

Eleven steel transmission towers over a three-mile stretch of line north of Bowdle, SD, were destroyed May 22 by a tornado rated by the National Weather Service as an EF4, with winds between 166 and 200 mph.

Bryan Keller, manager of Basin Electric’s Transmission System Maintenance (TSM) division, said crews from TSM’s eight outposts in four states were called in to assist with the recovery efforts. They finished setting steel structures on June 9 and stringing conductor on June 18.

Keller said one of the biggest challenges has been deploying heavy equipment in soggy conditions, which required some innovative thinking by the TSM crews. “Our big Grove crane weighs about 95,000 pounds with the counterweights in place. They built a skid, parked the crane on it, and used two Caterpillar dozers to drag the crane into place.”

The tornado ripped some of the towers off their concrete footings; all but one of them was able to be re-used. “Most of the footings are 30 to 42 inches in diameter and 16 to 18 feet deep. The tornado pulled one about three feet out of the ground,” he said.

Keller estimates repairs will cost about $1.5 million.

“I have to take my hat off to the crews and supervisors for safely restoring the line in record time. They worked 12-plus-hour days for 20 days straight to mobilize, assemble and set the structures. After a short weekend back home, they were back pulling in new conductor and returning the line to service,” Keller said. “With this already being the third major storm-related outage this year, we are all hoping for a quiet summer.”