Wheat Belt Public Power District recently completed a project replacing approximately three miles of insulators on a power line north of Lisco.

In the early to mid-1980s, several of Wheat Belt’s lines were constructed using Knox brand insulators. At the time, Knox was a widely used manufacturer; however, it was later discovered that some of these insulators had a tendency for the porcelain to crack near the top. Over time, these cracks can worsen and eventually cause the top portion of the insulator to break off, which can lead to outages.

Unfortunately, several thousand of these insulators were installed before this issue became known. In recent years, Wheat Belt crews have been working to identify locations where Knox insulators exist and replace them in a systematic manner.

Some power lines were built entirely with Knox insulators, while others contain a mixture of manufacturers, which can make the replacement process more complex and time-consuming. Despite these challenges, Wheat Belt continues to proactively replace these aging components as they are identified.

We understand that outages can be frustrating for our customers, and projects like this are part of our ongoing effort to improve system reliability and reduce the likelihood of future service interruptions.

By: Rollie Waite, Manager of Operations