Structure Guard
In the 2000s, while at an IEEE T&D trade show, we discovered a vendor who manufactured an electric fence. The vendor wanted to expand beyond their existing territory. Our sister company, Lehman Company & Associates, agreed to represent this particular vendor in the Midwest. Upon achieving much success, we recognized through interactions with our fence customers of the overriding need for safety in the electrical substation and the ability to allow operators to perform their activities without the entrapment of a fence.
Simultaneously, we at Lehman Electrical Resources (LER) were selling breaker covers, insulator covers etc. which was the traditional animal mitigation approach for the electrical industry. Armed with industry intelligence garnered from our sister company, we began to develop a non-electric fence. While in the process of developing a non-electric fence, an electric co-operative phoned us with a request to purchase plastic material sheets for installation around poles to prevent animals from climbing up the pole and across the wires or electrical lines into the substation. This customer had been wrapping their poles with sheet metal. As the sun was setting on the western plains, drivers were blinded by the sun reflecting off the sheet metal wrapped poles. It wasn’t the best solution.
Now with two intelligent pieces of market information and another long day of non-electric fence designing, our team gathered in the conference room …that’s when the “light came on”! “If we can wrap poles with this plastic, why couldn’t we wrap structures in substations with plastic?” As is sometimes the case, a simple question has many complicated ramifications. Our electrical industry was a monopoly in which utility engineers developed unique solutions for their particular substation design. Many of the solutions included the considerations of personal preference and geographical location. As one looks at the global industry, substation design and thus substation structures are unique and varied. Some are square, others are cross member supported etc. and the list goes on. To complicate the original design/build is the addition of junction boxes, switches and other additions/deletions of equipment and structures. The end result is there is no uniformity of structures and equipment in the substation. To design a solution is a CHALLENGE!!!
We took on the challenge and after two years of R&D, developed the first prototype of Structure Guard. We painstakingly and methodically developed the steps for Lehman Electrical Resources (LER) manufacturing processes of Structure Guard. Materials were selected as they were appropriate and fitting to the substation environment and as they were solution effective. Leaning on our reputation, we were fortunate enough to gain an audience with one of our customers who had many animal outages and no satisfactory solution. Obviously this was a costly problem! With little to lose on the customers end and our reputation on the line, Structure Guard was evaluated and accepted! We had our first substation designated and our first installation.
Two years later into the design process we have had numerous modifications and changes to meet our customer’s specific challenges. We now have a patented product; our manufacturing is automated and quality control guidelines are in place. The result of our perseverance…we have multiple installations of Structure Guard at a wide variety of customer sites and yes, we have a SOLUTION for Animal Caused Outages!
The results: LER installations of Structure Guard have proved NO Outages where multiple outages have occurred in the past.
Let our experts tackle your animal mitigation problems. ‘Solutions in Animal Mitigation’ is our business; our reputation is built on how reliable your service is…
TRUST STRUCTURE GUARD!