ROCHELLE – The Rochelle City Council approved a $90,425 contract with Anixter International Inc. to enhance the city’s utility system reliability. The company will conduct thermal imaging to identify potential problems before they lead to power outages.
Blake Toliver, Superintendent of Electric Operations and Generation for Rochelle Municipal Utilities, said this will help them stay ahead of maintenance.
“This will provide not only a picture of every single pole in our territory, but the thermal imaging will show loose connections, bad lightning arresters, transformers that are low on oil or are overheating, cutouts that may be failing,” he said. “So the whole point of this is to get a baseline imagery of all of our poles, get an inventory of the condition that they are in, as well as inventory of all of our assets that are in the field and if they’re operating properly.”
The inspections will be done through a combination of driving along the pole lines and using drones to access hard-to-reach poles. The data collected will be reviewed by trained linemen to proactively address issues, with the project funded through the Electric Funds budget. The city plans to revisit the inspection process every three years.
