Those three big gray canisters on a scaffold along North Albany Road are voltage regulators Pacific Power has been installing over the last few days.
Albany Mayor Sharon Konopa called it “one ugly piece of equipment.” It’s a voltage regulator assembly, and Pacific Power plans to install it on city-owned property just north of the park-and-ride station off North Albany Road.
Trimming branches above power lines is not the only thing that has to be done from time to time. Sometimes, as in this case, the whole top of a dead tree has to come down.
Pacific Power is asking us all to “get to know your new smart meter.” I don’t know about you, but as for me, that’s one complication I didn’t ask for and don’t need.
Pacific Power left a door hanger inviting me to “meet your new smart meter… Go ahead: Take a look.” So I did. And now I wish that along with the door hanger, the installer had left instructions on what the readouts on the meter mean.
Pacific Power picked Independence to launch its Oregon conversion to “smart meters” because the town in Polk County is striving to be a tech-savvy place. I went there Tuesday night to take in an event the power company put on, and I learned a couple of things.
Quick repairs in the middle of the night
It’s not every night you wake up with the flashes of emergency lights playing on the ceiling of your room. So when it happens, you are inclined to get up, get dressed and see what’s going on outside in front of your house.
Tags: emergency power repairs, Pacific Power, replacing a pole