Thumbs up for Wind Power!| UPDATE: Another Wind Project is coming up in Ubly and will be starting the month of May. |  |
It’s called the Thumb of Michigan and there, in the state’s Lower Peninsula, it’s thumbs up for wind power. Three IBEW locals have joined forces to sign new contractors and provide wiremen and linemen to
install dozens of 280-foot wind turbines. Their work has been so successful that they are receiving recommendations for more projects from general contractors. Wind studies showed good flow between
Lake Huron to the east and Saginaw Bay to the west, says Detroit Local 17 Business Manager Kevin Shaffer. “Wind power is the upcoming alternative because of thousands of miles of water frontage and rural electric cooperatives are showing strong interest,” says Keith Sarns, business manager of Grand
Rapids Local 876.
After Wind Connect, typically a nonunion subsidiary of Alliant Power, received the contract
for the four-phase windmill project, Shaffer and Mike Aulseybrook, Local 17’s organizer, met with Pat Ringler, Wind Connect’s project manager. In June, they agreed to sign with the local. SPE Utility Contractors, a Local 17 signatory contractor, wired 32 turbines and towers in the first phase in Pigeon, Mich.
SPE, the first contractor in Michigan to be qualified and factory-certified on windmill work, also partnered with signatory contractor Spaulding Electric to build the substation, using some members of Detroit
Locals 58 and 17. Underground work and collectors were contracted to InfraSource. Since Local 876
had a signatory relationship with the company, Sarns helped broker discussions with Jim Cobbs, the company’s director in the area, resulting in InfraSource signing with Local 17. The various IBEW locals worked together to establish a new classification to cover the work. Wind turbine work requires qualified
climbers to meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, so the work has been performed with composite crews consisting of a journeyman lineman and a journeyman wireman to ensure the standards are met. Composite crews work on a turbine while one journeyman acts as a
groundman and qualified safety person.
|
|
|
