Training Yard Offers New Possibilities for Linemen Training

If you’ve driven by United Power’s headquarters off I-76 in Brighton, you may have noticed the series of poles and wires going up along the eastern edge of its property. Earlier this year, the cooperative began construction on its new, state-of-the-art outdoor linemen training facility. 

Once completed, the new training yard will feature multiple phases for linemen to practice and prepare for real scenarios they may encounter in the field. The two most prominent phases visible at the moment are the high poles, situated throughout the training yard, and the short poles, along the southern side of the yard. 

While high poles are standard place on utility training yards and in linemen schools, short poles are an innovative idea brought to the cooperative all the way from Las Vegas through journeyman lineman Jeff Soole. These allow linemen to practice regular maintenance and upgrades while instructors are able to watch from below. 

“It’s a training tool with endless possibilities,” said Operations Superintendent Mike Lanckriet. “It can be what we need it to be whenever we need it. It has the ability to constantly evolve depending on what we need to train for.” 

Before construction of the training yard, linemen often had to learn by watching more experienced linemen in the field. However, even experienced linemen may encounter rare or unknown situations. The training yard allows them to train for both rare and routine tasks. 

In addition to training current linemen on various tasks and responsibilities, it has already proven useful in helping attract more qualified and capable linemen to join the Operations team.

“It’s not going to be as large as a training yard at a line school, but once it’s completed it will be comparable,” Lanckriet said. 

United Power is one of the state’s first cooperatives to begin construction on a training yard and phase in an innovative training regimen for its linemen.