Electric utility companies across America are setting aside the day this Thursday for an infrequent but necessary maintenance operation: flushing out all of the electrical lines.
It’s a task that is only performed about once every 25 to 30 years, to prevent a condition that, if ignored for too long, can have serious consequences. The culprit is the static-charged dust that naturally clings to electrical wires and builds up inside light fixtures and switches. An over-accumulation of this static dust can lead to electrical problems, short-circuits and even fires. A simple reverse-polarity surge of high-voltage current across the nation’s electrical grid releases the dust harmlessly inside the walls at the users’ end.
Rather than wait for each utility company to decide when to perform the crucial job, the Obama administration has called upon all power companies to do it this Thursday, dubbed Clean the Grid Day.
“We call upon all Americans to get ready once again for this unusual but very important task,” said a White House spokesman. “Electric customers - homeowners, schools, businesses - all need to prepare for Thursday’s power line flush.”
That’s because the power system purge yields one rather inconvenient consequence. Some of the dust will be ejected out of the customers’ electrical outlets. People are urged to take a simple precaution before Thursday: unplug all lamps, appliances and electronics and cover all of their receptacles with small pieces of electrical or masking tape to prevent the electrostatic dust from shooting out of their outlets and into their homes. While the dust is harmless and non-toxic, it can be a nuisance and is quite messy.
Power company engineers agree, pointing out what can happen to people who fail to heed the warning.
“I remember when we flushed the lines last time back in ‘81,” said Rodney Moon, systems engineer for Con Edison in New York. “My neighbor laughed the whole thing off, thinking it was all a big joke. Until the fool came home from work that afternoon to discover the half inch layer of fine yellow dust covering everything in his house. Not a pretty sight.”
Maintenance staff and homeowners everywhere have been scrambling to tape over the wall outlets in their buildings and dwellings. Sales of electrical tape were brisk at home center stores throughout the nation.
“The ordinary 120-volt electrical outlet is the weak link in this whole system. Clean the Grid Day is coming, like it or not!,” added Moon. “A two-buck roll of tape will save you lots of headaches later.”
Meanwhile, officials at several telecoms in the U.S and Canada are watching this event very closely to determine the best way for them to flush out the phone lines in their networks later this year.
