Montana Electricians Build Training Tower

Following the winds of change

By JOHN HARRINGTON, Independent Record | Posted: Sunday, August 22, 2010 12:05 am
Within weeks a 60-foot tower that could support an electricity-generating wind turbine will be built in the Helena Valley. But there are no plans to put blades on the tower, no plans to connect it to the electrical grid and start harnessing some of the valley’s renewable resource.
Instead, the tower will be placed at the Stan I. Dupree Lineman Training Center off Canyon Ferry Road and will be used by electricians and other tradesmen for training in how to install and maintain the towering structures that make up the growing number of wind farms across the country.
The project is being funded by a $5 million stimulus grant to be used for new energy job training across the state.
“This grant will help our state’s current and emerging workforce needs in wind, solar and other renewable energy and energy-efficiency industries,” said Gary Pemble, state training director for the Montana Electrical Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and National Electrical Contractors Association joined the MEJATC-led consortium that applied for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding.
A foundation was dug this week for the tower, and delivery of the unit, which is being built in Wisconsin and will be delivered in one piece, is expected later this summer.
Mitch Hegman, assistant training director for the MEJATC, said the tower will be added to the training center’s curriculum.
“For example, we might bring an apprentice class down here for a day and have them climb up inside, show them how to tie off to climb up and show them all the other safety procedures,” he said. “The idea is to pre-train people before they go on the site so somebody doing a wind turbine project will know they’re already capable of doing the work.
In addition to turbine installation, the grant will help train workers in power plant and hydroelectric construction and be used for power transmission lines, new oil pipeline and upgrades and maintenance to refineries.
Part of the grant is also being used for a system of solar panels on the roof of the MEJATC building on Bozeman Avenue. But rather than simply having the system put on the roof, the training center hosted a two-day class last week for professionals from around the state to learn photovoltaic installation.
One local electrician attending the class was Troy Brandt, a co-owner of Eagle Electric who’s already been in the trade for 14 years. Brandt said it’s important to keep up with the new technology.
“(Solar) is what everyone is doing now, and if we don’t latch onto it we’ll be left behind,” he said.
Brandt said solar was traditionally used more in off-the-grid locations where other power sources weren’t available, but more and more people in urban areas are looking for ways to use more renewable energy as well.
“We’re seeing such demand for on-grid systems in cities, how a lot of people want solar on their houses,” he said. “We’re licensed electricians and we want to be the ones doing the installation.”
Hegman said similar solar arrays are planned for other buildings around the state.
And on a much smaller scale, grant money was used for a small, 15-foot wind turbine that will power the lights in the sign outside the MEJATC building. That unit, which will power LED lights inside the sign, was installed this week by Greenlight Electric Co. of Great Falls.
Reporter John Harrington: 447-4080 or john.harrington@