APS team spots trouble on the move

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but in this case, they are worth millions of dollars.

On a bright spring afternoon, Dave Thornton drives a large white Chevy Suburban near the Arizona Public Service offices off Araby Road.

But this isn't your average sport utility vehicle, it's a brand-new addition to the APS arsenal - and it's helping workers find trouble spots in power lines, saving the company millions of dollars.

Scott Alford is the predictive maintenance section leader with APS.

Alford, Thornton and infrared specialist Ian Hatfield operate the truck, which is equipped with three cameras to help them survey APS lines to check for damage.

The first is a camera that provides a visual inspection.

The second camera is an infrared camera that detects heat. That way, if a line, a transformer or other equipment is "leaking" or weakened, the team is able to detect it and repair it before the problem can develop.

The third camera, a daytime corona camera, uses the ultraviolet spectrum to detect problems throughout the APS network.

With the cameras, the team is able to look at both above- and below-ground power lines.

The cameras alone can cost $65,000 to $85,000 each, bringing the total cost of the vehicle to several hundred thousand dollars

The team, along with seven members of the predictive maintenance team, found 15 problems in the Yuma area last week. Three were major, meaning they could become a bigger problem if a larger load was forced on the system.

Some of those minor problems could be earthquake-related, Alford said.

The team was only supposed to stay a week in Yuma but have extended their stay to two weeks after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that hit Baja California Sunday.

During their time here, they'll cover the entire Yuma area, including Somerton and San Luis.

Finding problems like this are especially important with the summer temperatures quickly approaching, Alford said.

"Anytime you have any kind of wire or conductor get warm enough, it could go right to the ground and there's a potential failure," he said.

APS spokeswoman Andrea Bereznak said the summertime, when the load is greater with more people using more power, could potentially cause an outage that workers wouldn't be able to detect until it happened.

The new technology helps prevent that. "This way we look at it and see what equipment is slightly stressed and change it out," she said.

That proactive approach has already saved the company $12 million in the past 11 years.

With very basic tools, a laptop and one infrared camera, Alford started the project with APS 11 years ago. By proving it's well worth the investment, the company built the new Suburban.

Alford said it's the only one like it that he and the other team members know of. Other companies have hand-held cameras - APS has some of those, too - and some companies have vehicles equipped with one type of camera, but no one with all three.

Inside the vehicle, Hatfield sits at a desk with three monitors, one for each camera, and uses a joystick to scan the terrain for hot spots.

With just five weeks on the road since the company introduced the vehicle, Alford skillfully scans, constantly searching for problems.

And he can do it perfectly while the vehicle is at speeds anywhere from 20 mph to 50 mph.

Hatfield said "it takes a little practice, but it's a lot of fun."

"There's sure challenges to the training, but the guys are doing a great job," Alford said.

The team's plan is to cover the entire state in the next seven years.

In the end, it's all about preventing problems before they start.

"We're trying to be as perfectly reliable as we can for our customers," Thornton said.

After already saving the company $12 million with just one man and limited technology, Hatfield said he hopes with the additional team members and added technology, they can increase the cost savings.

"We're hoping that it just goes up from there."