Challenge

A critical substation outside of Washington, D.C., was given a scheduled window of 72 hours to complete a breaker replacement on a section of 230kV bus, or else face daily fines of $10,000 per day.

With less than 36 hours left, the contractor realized the utility did not order enough 3” Bus connectors to meet the original design plan.

To further complicate matters, a strong storm cell poured rain throughout this particular weekend with more torrential rain expected in the form of Hurricane Florence.  Initial forecast models projected the Category 4 Hurricane to directly hit the beltway. A state of emergency for the entire District of Columbia was declared just two days after the project deadline.

Finding these connectors, installing during the storm, and finishing this project on time – and before the next storm – were all absolutely critical.

Solution

DMC Power connectors are the utility standard and the contractor was a 15-year DMC Power user, so they knew who to turn to. Our Territory Manager had visited this particular substation as well as the onsite crew at other locations numerous times to conduct trainings and regular jobsite check-ins.

The call came in on the morning of Saturday, September 8^th with a brief rundown to understand the scope of the project. Within minutes our Territory Manager guaranteed DMC Power could help both parties meet their deadlines.

This was not a lucky accident.

First, because of our long relationship with the contractor and utilities engineering department, the coordination required to approve the design modification was able to occur without delay.  Quotes, purchase orders, invoicing – all that paperwork would be dealt with on Monday. Getting the connectors installed was priority #1.

Second, DMC Power has strategically located facilities through North America with hundreds of different connector sizes and configurations on the shelf and ready to ship. Our East Coast Headquarters are less than two hours from this job site. While final design modifications were being made, our Territory Manager drove to our facility to pack and stage the connectors and tooling ahead of a 6:30 a.m. Sunday start time.

120p: Whad’ya know? It’s still raining – with some localized downpours. Should start to ease later this afternoon pic.twitter.com/XK9XwVqrcR

— Capital Weather Gang (@capitalweather) September 9, 2018

“There is real concern that #Florence will slow or stall over the Mid-Atlantic Friday through next weekend & produce disastrous amounts of rain, although it is too soon to pinpoint where.” More info: https://t.co/sFjqgm82DE (Pictured NWS 7-day rain forecast, likely conservative) pic.twitter.com/t6siT06SIT

— Capital Weather Gang (@capitalweather) September 9, 2018