Stronger requirements for utility poles?
It’s a question being explored by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission as it considers utility pole requirements across the state.
Commissioners will meet Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.and one of the items on the agenda is a state request to further explore the matter. The item refers to “Inquiry of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to Examine the Structural Resiliency and Hardening of Wood Utility Pole Systems in Use by Regulated Electric Utilities.”
Documents provided by the Commission indicate staff made initial attempts beginning in August to learn more about the reliability of wooden utility poles used by utilities across the state and whether existing poles meet certain standards. Their initial study examined whether current wooden power poles meet requirements of the American National Standards Institute.
Rep. MikeDobrinski began exploring the issue last May to determine whether there was a “possible need for legislation that clarifies or expands” the responsibility of the Corporation Commission to ensure safety and compliance of both federal and state laws.
In a letter to the Corporation Commission, Dobrinski said in a meeting he held with one telephone company, he discovered none of the firm’s current inventory of wooden poles would meet the safety code set by ANSI. At a meeting with one electric cooperative, the legislator was informed that only two poles out of approximately 40 in inventory were compliant with ANSI code standards.