Keeping our “lights” on when others are off
Summer officially began June 20, as charted by the summer solstice. While impacted this year by COVID-19, many say the day after school lets out is the start of summer. Weather forecasters informally peg the beginning of the summer storm season in North Texas as June 1.
No matter how you view the start of summertime, storms during this time of the year can be accompanied by various concerns and challenges. Tornadoes, hail, lightning and heavy rainstorms can bring harm to people and damage to property.
Fortunately, in Valley Ranch, the flood control system built nearly 40 years ago was designed to protect the community from damage from precipitation. But sometimes, major storms can play havoc with electrical service and electricity is required for some aspects of IFCD 3’s operations. That’s why IFCD 3 leaders have paid attention to the importance of electricity to our work and taken several key measures to make this aspect of the system as dependable as technically possible.
About 10 years ago, careful review of the District’s system revealed several areas where technical advancements since original construction of IFCD’s facilities made it possible to increase electrical reliability at our pumping facility. Major advancements in electrical control made it possible to bring a second source of commercial power to the pump station, providing greater redundancy in receiving power. As a result, if a nearby transformer should fail for any reason, electrical controls can switch the pump station from our primary feed to a secondary feed, served from another area of the grid in Valley Ranch.
With that improvement, our focus on dependability shifted to provision of emergency power in the event of a loss of electricity from both commercial feeds. Once again, the same electrical control developments that made dual commercial power connections possible also enabled the addition of backup power generation capabilities. In 2016, twin diesel generators were installed to complete the electrical update program, assuring that pumps could be operated whenever needed, with generator power starting automatically in the event of a community-wide power failure.
To further ensure power availability when needed, both commercial power feeds, the back-up generator facilities and all change-over equipment are tested monthly, along with the pumps, to maintain confidence in the pump station’s availability when needed.
While storms always will be a part of life, it’s good to know that if power to part or all of Valley Ranch is disrupted, IFCD 3 pumps will keep on working to protect our individual and business residents.