I tried to write this blog twice before but ended up quitting each time. I feel sad and a bit down today, though I’m not quite sure why. Now, I’m back to writing this entry.
I woke up as usual, with my alarm set for 6 a.m., but I ended up getting out of bed around 6:30. After showering and brushing my teeth, I had my typical breakfast of cream and bread. I reached the office by 8:40. Today is Saturday, which is usually a holiday, but we work on off days.
Around 9:00 a.m., we left the office in a truck headed to our work site, which was about an hour away. There were five of us linemen in total. We dropped off the first lineman who usually takes the longest to clean the tower, and then the others, including me. My task was on Tower 45—a tall structure with normal disc insulators.
Once I climbed down to the insulator string, I saw that it was dusty with a significant amount of carbon buildup. It took me about an hour and a half to scrub off the dust, though the carbon deposits were challenging to remove. I informed my supervisor that the carbon buildup couldn’t be entirely removed, though I did my best. The officers often tell us to clean the discs as thoroughly as we would on the ground (where we sometimes wash insulators with acid before replacing them), but achieving that level of cleanliness is nearly impossible at such heights.
Two of the five linemen took approximately four hours to clean their towers, and I wondered how they managed to stand on the insulator string for so long. One of my fellow linemen climbed his tower, cleaned a couple of discs, and then informed the supervisor that the insulators needed replacement. He moved on to another tower while the rest of us continued.
Eventually, the SDO (Sub-divisional Officer) arrived in his pickup truck with clean discs to replace the dirty ones. We were five men in total, including the driver and the supervisor. We fixed a pulley on the cross arm to exchange the discs—sending clean ones up while bringing the dirty ones down. It took about an hour to finish replacing the discs.
Higher authorities often pressure the officers, who then pass that pressure down to us. We’re a small crew, and while it’s technically not legal or safe to clean disc insulators on the tower itself, we’re asked to do it because we lack the manpower to replace them entirely. This has left us responsible if a tower “flashes,” meaning if current flows through the carbon buildup, causing a line trip. With winter coming, we expect more tower incidents due to carbon deposits on insulators, and instead of addressing this issue, the officers tend to place the blame on us.
I reached home around 3 p.m. and had some leftover biryani from the previous night. Afterward, I took a nap at 4 p.m. and woke up at 6 p.m. In the evening, I watched Terrifier 3, which was incredibly intense with very gory scenes. After that, I had dinner, watched some YouTube videos, and then finally sat down to write this blog. Hope you enjoy reading it.