Estes Park Power and Communications is continually striving to provide the best electrical and broadband service to its customers.
In a dynamic environment like the Rocky Mountains, regular maintenance and upgrades to the electric system are required. Performing regular system maintenance provides opportunities to upgrade and improve on an ongoing basis. Capital improvement projects are continually underway to bring large-scale long-term upgrades to the system.
Please refer to the Trailblazer Construction Schedule webpage to follow construction progress and to see if service is available in your neighborhood.
ESTES-FLATIRON TRANSMISSION LINE REBUILD PROJECT
WAPA is combining two 16-mile transmission lines to one 16-mile transmission line between the Town of Estes Park and Flatiron Reservoir. Once constructed, the new steel-pole transmission line will carry both existing 115-kilovolt lines currently strung on separate wood H-frame structures. The wood structures will be removed after the construction of the new steel-pole transmission line. Project information, including maps and updates, can be found on WAPA's website.
This rebuild project will:
- Reduce the potential for customer service disruption by improving reliable electric delivery to the Town of Estes Park
- Install a more resilient steel transmission line and remove aged and deteriorating wood structures
- Halve the transmission corridors and the associated environmental footprint
- Ensure that the transmission line rights of way comply with applicable codes and requirements
- Mitigate wildfire hazards to transmission structures
- Improve maintenance access for routine work and emergencies
The Power and Communications Division will continue work on a new capital improvement project along Marys Lake Road to build one of two new circuits in the Estes Valley. The new Twin Sisters Circuit continues Power and Communications’ efforts to meet the growing electrical service needs of the population within its service area. This project will consist of replacing existing poles, upgrading transformers, and installing insulated aerial power lines to increase system reliability and power quality, protect wildlife, and reduce wildfire risk from faulting or sparking lines.
The project area for phase 2 is along Marys Lake Road from Griffith Court to Lower Broadview Rd. Work is anticipated to begin on Jan. 9, 2023, and be complete by mid-summer 2023.
To facilitate this work, crews must access the utility right-of-way along the power lines. Due to the electric system design along Marys Lake Road, access will occasionally be off-road and through customers' yards. Crews will attempt to notify customers before accessing the right-of-way through their property. Work will take place on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., weather permitting.
Other customer impacts will be temporary outages (2-4 hours typically) while crews transfer the overhead lines and transformers to the new poles. These outages will only affect properties fed off the transformer being replaced. Crews will attempt to notify affected customers beforehand.
A map of the project area can be found below. Residents of the project area are encouraged to watch this page for updates. For questions or concerns, contact Tyler Boles, Line Crew Supervisor, at 970-577-3607 or tboles@estes.org.
Electric Project Information
Scroll left or right for more information regarding ongoing Power & Communications projects.
Specific projects for both electrical and broadband crews are highlighted on the map above.
Electric System Inventory
Estes Park Power and Communications has contracted a crew to maintain an inventory of our electric and fiber optic system to improve and provide accuracy to system GIS maps. This inventory includes poles, powerlines, transformers, and other electrical equipment throughout the service area. At times they will be accessing the right of ways on properties to walk out the powerlines and collect additional data.
Electric Maintenance Projects
- Street light upgrades
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In 2011, Power and Communications began upgrading the high-pressure sodium (HPS) bulbs in the street lights throughout Estes Park to LED bulbs. Power and Communications maintain over 500 streetlights in the Estes Valley including highway lights along Highways 34, 36, and 7, neighborhood street lights, and the decorative lights around downtown. Following several initial pushes to change out stretches of lights, upgrades are ongoing as the HPS lights need to be replaced. In some instances, the new LED bulbs can simply be swapped into the existing light fixture, in other cases, an adaptor must be used to upgrade the light. In some fixtures, the whole light head needs to be replaced, as there is no adaptor.
LED lights use about 50% less energy than HPS bulbs, and last about 4 times longer. This translates into significant savings in energy costs to the Town in energy savings and maintenance costs over the lifetime of the bulbs. LED lights also increase safety and night-time visibility. The LED lights being installed along the highways and neighborhoods have an improved distribution of light compared to HPS lights. The LEDs shed light along the roadway, increasing visibility in dark spots between street light poles, rather than solely dumping light directly below street light fixtures as the HPS luminaires did. The LEDs also have a shield that can be added to reduce the amount of back-lighting that spills behind the street light pole and onto adjacent properties. LED lights also produce a white light, where HPS lights produce a light that looks yellow/orange. The white light allows colors to appear more natural at night, improving color rendering and visibility of other vehicles, pedestrians, and wildlife.
- Fuse and Recloser Upgrades
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Power and Communications crews are upgrading the fuses at critical junctions throughout the Light &, Power service area. TripSaver Cutout-Mounted Reclosers are installed in place of traditional cutout fuses along overhead distribution powerlines.
They are often placed at the junction between the main line and lateral lines. TripSavers are an integral component of the system upgrades that Power and Communications has added to its service area.
TripSavers can be set to function two ways: as a traditional cutout fuse or as an OCR (oil circuit recloser). When set as a cutout fuse, it senses unusually high current (fault current) and opens. This breaks the circuit and turns off the power beyond that opening.
When the TripSaver is set to function in place of an OCR it can be programmed to "operate" (open and close) a certain number of times before it's locked out (opens and stays open). A TripSaver will lock out under two circumstances 1) high current for longer than a set time (1-1.5 seconds), or 2) current higher than the programmed load limit for any length of time. Otherwise, the TripSaver will operate to allow the fault to clear, this causes the power to blink, but it will stay on. For example, if a tree branch falls on the line and causes a fault, the TripSaver will operate three times, this allows time for the branch to fall off the line and clear the fault. Without the TripSaver, the single fault would cause the cutout fuse to open and power beyond that point would be lost until the fuse could be replaced.
The TripSaver has an additional setting as a safety precaution for working on energized lines. The one-shot setting programs the TripSaver to open immediately once it senses a specified load (amount of current).
TripSavers have the advantage of requiring less maintenance than an OCR since there is no oil to refill. It also maintains a record of operations, so crews have a better idea of what's happening along the line.