$26 million dollar lightning strike.

[bphgravity]

How protected are YOU from lightning???

GREEN BAY, Wis., Oct. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, a subsidiary of Integrys Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE: TEG), today updated the cost and timeline for repairing the damage resulting from the October 6, 2007, lightning strike at its Weston 3 power plant near Wausau, WI.

Wisconsin Public Service expects the plant to be out of service until late 2007 or early 2008. Wisconsin Public Service has received approval from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSCW) to defer the incremental cost of the replacement power, which gives Public Service the opportunity to recover the cost of the replacement power when those costs become known.

The company expects those costs to be at least $26 million. Wisconsin Public Service has requested similar deferral of non-fuel operating and maintenance costs incurred to return Weston 3 to service, which is currently estimated to be $8.3 million. This application is pending before the PSCW, and was updated today with the new estimated cost and timeline.

The company has insurance in place to cover the equipment damage resulting from the lightning strike, less a $1 million deductible. Assuming a favorable outcome for the recovery of these requested deferred costs in future rate proceedings, Integrys Energy Group does not expect that this incident will have a material impact on net income.

Weston 3 is a 321.6-megawatt base load coal-fired generating facility located
near Wausau, Wisconsin.

 

[chris kennedy]

They must have had an improperly installed grounding electrode system.:grin:

 

[JohnJ0906]

They must have had an improperly installed grounding electrode system.:grin:

Hey, 2 ground rod are code! :grin:


(Post 1000!!!)

 

[chris kennedy]

(Post 1000!!!)

I show 1002?

 

[JohnJ0906]

I show 1002?

That particular post was #1000.

Of course, it had to be a smart a** one!

 

[brian john]

Further investigation shows NON-UL listed rods were utilized.

 

[Rampage_Rick]

So how many $500 ground rods is that?

 

[tallguy]

This piqued my curiosity, so I did a little search on it...

In August 2006, the same power plant was struck by lightning, resulting in appeals by the utility for customers to curtail electricity use in the Wausau, Minocqua and Rhinelander [maybe iaov knows more?] areas. The utility also cut off power supply to large manufacturing customers. The plant returned to service within a few days, a utility spokeswoman said.

If there's any bright side to the second lightning strike, Jensky said, "at least we were through the summer when peak demand for air-conditioning loads can create an increased electric reliability issue."

The damage came despite installation last year of "a state-of-the-art lightning suppression" system that was in operation at the time of the latest strike, the utility says in a letter filed with regulators.

So maybe now they'll add a fourth rod? :smile:

 

[frenchelectrican]

yes i heard it and i only got limited info from WPC POCO and the damage is rather pretty good but excat details they were little muted they dont want to give me some info to me for some reason but they did have tall smoke stack it got nailed pretty hard and near by transformer yard too but how much damaged it got. that i dont know but what i know my light did blink few time even thru i am on diffrent grid lines than the Weston plant is running but it can be felt by doimo effect.

Merci, Marc