POWERGRAMS

Stadium Stalwarts Some say Alabama has four seasons: winter, spring, summer and football. Whether you follow the University of Alabama, Auburn University or another team, most fans can agree that a lot of work goes into putting on a major college football game. Alabama Power works closely with the Tide and Tigers to make sure the lights stay on at every home game. "We have four substations that feed the University of Alabama," said Mike Baker, the company's engineering supervisor at Bryant-Denny Stadium. "On game day, we station a local operations lineman (LOL) at the west campus substation." "If we have an outage during the game," Baker continued, "we have two contingencies. If the university system itself gets in trouble, they have an alternate substation they can switch to. If Alabama Power loses our transmission feed to west campus, our local lineman there can switch to another source." Baker said a lot of preparation and coordination goes into lighting the 101,821-seat stadium. "I put out an email 2-3 days before game day" listing the Alabama Power and university contacts on duty, he said. He has yet to witness an outage. A 37-year Alabama Power employee, Baker is a Crimson Tide alumnus and fan. He graduated during the era of Paul "Bear" Bryant. "Bear won a championship before I started and again after I left," he said. "But not when I was there." Like its rival school, Auburn University uses its own distribution system to deliver electricity to Jordan-Hare Stadium. "We provide transmission service to two substations," said Merrill Hammett, operations manager at Auburn Crew Headquarters. "We do inspections and quality control on our transmission lines. The university takes it from there." "We have a redundant system with two transmission feeds," said Wade Davis, field service supervisor, Auburn Crew Headquarters. "An LOL is there in case of emergency if the electronics don't work." One of those LOLs, Reddoch McNeal, has dealt with such an emergency. "A chicken snake bridged the gap on the switch at the transmission substation," McNeal said. "He was trying to get at some birds." The incident took out Jordan-Hare's lights. Fortunately, the problem was discovered long before game time. The snake was not so lucky. "He took 44,000 volts," said McNeal. "There wasn't a whole lot left." Asked which team he roots for, McNeal was diplomatic: "They do a lot of good for the state. I like to see them both do good." Auburn graduate Hammett is a lifelong fan of the Tigers. "My dad and I have been going to games together since I was 3 years old," he said. By John Herr 100% CONNECTED 3 EMPLOYEES MAKE SURE LIGHTS STAY ON AT BRYANT-DENNY, JORDAN-HARE Photo by Linda Brannon Tuscaloosa PD Distribution Operations Manager Greg Long in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Local Operations Linemen Keith Williams and Wayne Brand joined Hammett to review work plan outside SEC Nation bus in Auburn.

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