For Greater Good

The new underground training field at Hoosier Energy’s Franklin Training Center is important and so is the journey that turned the dream into a reality. Just ask Chris Thompson.

Thompson, JCREMC Journeyman Lineman turned Regulatory Compliance/Safety and Training Coordinator, has had a front row seat for the project’s evolution.

TRAINING FOR SAFETY

Hoosier Energy, an electricity generation and transmission cooperative, supplies power to its 18 member cooperatives, including JCREMC—but that’s not the whole story. They also provide in-depth training and continuing education that prepares line workers for their careers and teaches them how to stay safe on the job. It’s the kind of training that makes sure everybody goes home to their families at the end of each day.

That’s what Thompson is passionate about.

The Training Center, nestled on a quiet wooded road in JCREMC’s service territory in rural Johnson County, is home to poles, lines, transformers, a substation, and other electrical equipment line crews encounter out in the field. But until very recently, any training on underground electric lines had to be done via a mobile unit.

Fortunately, in the cooperative world, needs don’t tend to stay unmet for too long.

A TEAM EFFORT

Thompson, who frequently teaches at the Training Center and has for the last 14 years, remembers Bob Richhart’s vision. Richhart, Hoosier Energy’s Chief Technology Officer and a former JCREMC Journeyman Lineman, envisioned an expansion of the Training Center property by developing an advanced underground training field. Thompson knew right away it was a project he wanted to be part of.

Given the explosive industrial and residential growth in the northern half of JCREMC’s service territory, the cooperative’s line workers regularly install, troubleshoot, and work on underground lines.

During his apprenticeship, Thompson experienced that growth firsthand. As a journeyman lineman, he knew how important it was to make sure new classes of apprentices had access to facilities that mirror what they will encounter in the field.

As Hoosier Energy’s vision for the underground field evolved, JCREMC’s leadership jumped at the chance to support the project by donating time for visioning and construction, and providing the necessary poles to connect overhead electric service to the new underground equipment.

By the time construction started, several other Hoosier Energy member cooperatives had joined in the project by donating time and materials. It was that cooperation among cooperatives—one of the Seven Cooperative Principles—that brought the vision to life.

“I remember sitting in a meeting early on where we were trying to figure out how we might make this all work,” Thompson said. “I had a lot of experience with underground lines, so as everyone talked, I jumped up and started drawing a potential layout on the whiteboard. It evolved from there.”

Cell phone pictures of those whiteboard drawings gave way to schematics. On October 18, 2019, those schematics gave way to reality.

The Training Center hosted its first Underground School—a training program Thompson helped organize and teach—October 29-30.

“Line work is unique because you can’t make a mistake,” Thompson said. “I want to instill the confidence in these people to do things right. That’s what the linemen before me taught me when I was in school and now I’m passionate about using my experience to teach others. Having access to these facilities is a game changer in terms of how we’re able to prepare our line workers.”

COOPERATION AMONG COOPERATIVES

Hoosier Energy’s underground training field is an exciting example of how cooperation among cooperatives makes an impact. In working together on this project, not only did they improve the training facilities, but the line workers who volunteered their time on construction have enhanced the safety and expertise of line workers for years to come.

That’s not only good news for the line workers themselves but for consumers of Indiana’s rural electric cooperatives, including JCREMC. Access to state-of-the-art training environments means line workers are as prepared as possible to efficiently perform the construction, maintenance, and repairs that keep the lights on for our consumers.

Fall 2019 – Download the PDF version.