PETER PAN and PERFECT POWER

Too bad neither of these exist. Peter Pan was a careless, boastful boy who refused to grow up and Perfect Power refuses to cooperate with rural utilities.  Both reside in Never-land.

Power surges and voltage drops occur when something boosts or impedes the electrical charge at some point in the power lines. This causes an increase or decrease in the electrical potential energy, which can increase the current flowing to your wall outlet. There is little difference between the damage caused by a power surge or a voltage drop.

The most familiar source of power surges is lightening. When lightning strikes near a power line, whether it's underground, in a building or running along lines, the electrical energy can boost electrical pressure by millions of volts. This causes an extremely large power surge that will overpower almost any surge protector. In a lightning storm, you should never rely on your surge protector to save your computer. The best protection is to unplug your computer.

The most common cause of power surges is the operation of high-power electrical devices, such as grain dryer motors, irrigation wells, air conditioners and refrigerators. Actually 80% of all power surges are created by electronic equipment inside your home (source: Alliant Energy, EPRI, APS and IEEE.) These high-powered pieces of equipment require a lot of energy to switch on and turn off components like compressors and motors. This switching creates sudden, brief demands for power, which upset the steady voltage flow in the electrical system in your home. While these surges are nowhere near the intensity of a lightning surge, they can be severe enough to damage components, immediately or gradually, and they occur regularly in most building's electrical systems.

Surges can also occur when a tree touches a power line. The wind causing lines to slap together or an object striking a power pole, even birds that land on the lines can cause power surges. Improper or faulty wiring may be another source of power surges. Whatever the cause, power surges can be costly. They can damage virtually any electrical equipment that you may use and may not do so instantly but wear electric equipment down over time.

So the question becomes – who is responsible for power surges or voltage drops? The truth is, how can a utility company stop the wind, ice and snow storms, the animals, growing trees, and even accidents in which poles are hit? How do we know what appliances or wiring you have in your home? Rural utility companies have at least one thing in common, the constant vigilance and maintenance of the distribution system. They trim trees (when customers let them), tighten up pole hardware, do routine (and required) line patrol, install monitoring equipment in problem areas, and ask customers to report problems so that maintenance can prevent the problem from getting worse. With around 3 customers per mile of line, much of Dawson Power's  5,700+ miles of service lines are exposed to weather, trees and animals.

Can you see the problem with this (fuse/arrester) combination? Imagine trying to determine if it has damage looking at it from the ground, 25 feet below? The larger crack was on the top of the combo making it nearly impossible to detect.