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Human Birds on a Wire

SCE lineworkers train to safely repair and maintain live, high-powered transmission lines to keep power flowing for customers.

As the sun rises over the high desert community of Lucerne Valley, a crew of some of Southern California Edison’s most accomplished lineworkers gather underneath two massive 180-foot-high steel transmission towers. They’re here to practice “barehanding,” a method of maintaining and repairing the lines that keep electricity flowing throughout the company’s 50,000-square-mile service area.

To the uninitiated, it sounds crazy: handling lines and equipment that are energized with up to 500,000 kilovolts of electricity. Nothing separates the lineworkers from the live wires other than a pair of gloves no thicker than what you might wear working in your yard.

“Barehanding is very counterintuitive. It actually has demonstrated to be a safer work method than working on a de-energized transmission line,” said Raj Roy, SCE’s director of Transmission. “There’s still risk, of course, but the lineworkers are wearing Faraday suits, which provide them additional protection.”

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