SaskPower meter inspections and upgrades continue after more ground shifting

Ryan Blair, manager of operations and maintenance for SaskPower in Regina is giving residents a heads up on what to expect when it comes to ground shifting this summer after one of the driest years on record, according to Environment Canada.

“Our inspection repairs of electrical services in the city hasn’t stopped since last summer. Over the past ten months, we’ve had the driest year on record according to Environment Canada and that really affected the electrical services underground in Regina and other parts of the province,” Blair said.

SaskPower said they have seen six to eight inches of ground movement so far this year in some homes and even more in others.

“It’s been really hard on the services,” said Blair, who added the soil in Regina really affects the grounding electrical system.

SaskPower’s electrical grounding rods are 10 feet in the ground at every location and according to Blair, soil conditions are causing eroding, essentially eating away at the rods.

While the ground might be settling, SaskPower crews continue to find repairs that need to be made, however, they feel that the risk of having a major incident is significantly lower than last year.

Last year’s dry summer conditions were the cause of immense ground shifting in the city and other parts of the province which resulted in nine-meter box fires in Regina in a matter of weeks.

During the emergency portion of last year’s inspection process, Blair said there were over 100 electricians and lineman working to rectify electrical issues throughout the city.

“This year, we have a better system in place with 12 – 15 people working and the cost per home has gone down significantly,” said Blair.

The majority of the services that SaskPower is finding now are all aluminum belt conductors that were built in the ‘80s and ‘90s types of homes with smaller meter boxes and aluminum.

Blair said most of the older underground services like this are in areas like Uplands, Albert Park, Glencairn and some parts of the northwest.

“What we do have is meter readers. While they’re out doing their routes, they know what to look for and they’re telling us if they find these smaller meter boxes in different areas, maybe there’s one in an overhead area that’s kind of stuck in the middle between ten houses, we’ve found that before, and we repair them immediately,” he added.

In order to really see an impact, SaskPower is calling for more moisture and said what tends to happen underground when the clay settles, is something they described as a jack effect.

This year, SaskPower is focusing on adding what they call an expansion box on some houses, which Blair described as boxes about two feet that are designed to sit below your existing meter box.

What the expansion box will do it allow for up to an extra meter of wire that will go inside, enabling the ground settling to only take place inside the expansion box and not the meter box above it as the smaller meter boxes have zero room for any type of ground settling.

SaskPower is encouraging homeowners to contact them if they have noticed any changes to their meter box since last year, such as the conduit being pulled down, the meter box being twisted or tilted to the side of the house or if there has been any blackening to your meter box.