Crew’s Ingenuity Helps Restore Power to Mohawk Island

A creative solution by employees at PSNH’s Tilton area work center helped get power restored on an island on Lake Winnisquam following a May storm.

A new transformer was needed to restore power to the six families who reside on Mohawk Island, and while a sand bar that connects the island to the shore allows wading access through knee-deep water, workers had to come up with a way to transport the heavy transformer and associated equipment. So, borrowing a PSNH customer’s nearby swim platform, the crew converted it into an equipment barge, and then floated the transformer and equipment to the island.

Having to work without the aid of a bucket truck, linemen then climbed to the top of the affected pole and installed a pole gin (pictured) above the old transformer. They then hung a block-and-tackle from the hole at the top of the gin, and safely lowered the old transformer down and pulled the new one up. Soon thereafter, power was restored.

In a letter of appreciation to the company, Mohawk Island resident Carolyn Hughes wrote:

I want to commend the PSNH crew who helped restore my power in the recent storm outage on the 16th and 17th of this month. [Crew members] went above and beyond! Not only did they show up in the middle of the night to assess the damage (12:52 a.m.), but they came that morning with a brand new transformer and a tree-cutting crew. Living on an island makes it much more difficult…no trucks or lifts available, just plain manpower. We sometimes feel because we are only six families on the island that we might not get an immediate response. [My] thanks to them. They were polite, introduced themselves, told us their plan, and worked together well, being careful to ensure their safety. It is such a delight in these times to find people who care about their customers!