ESB Poles

shofukan

There were a few lads out where I live today painting the ESB poles.. The metal ones.
I was thinking, since I've been here this has never happened before. And now that we're in the middle of a recession somehow there's money for it?
Doesn't really make a lot of sense to me!

Victor

Painters are now cheaper.

Occassional painting won't cost a lot. And given that ESB Networks are spending billions, I doubt its a huge percentage of their costs.

DWCommuter

The ESB are one of the few semi state companies that are making money, even in a time of competition from Airtricity and Bord Gais. So let them at it, if they can justify it. I'd be more concerned if CIE were painting anything as they happily take nearly 300 million a year off the state in subvention.

phog

They would only require anti-rust treatment every so often and there is probably a program in place to do it by route to get best bang for buck.

Zoney

Also, it has been done from time to time in the past (at least in Limerick). It's interesting that the really old columns are still going and yet some of the ones from the 60s or 70s were replaced in recent years as they were rusting too badly! (The older ones are rusty too but presumably there's plenty more metal to get through - also they welded supporting plates to the bases a few years ago). Does anyone know when the old columns (big thick cylindrical ones that take overhead wires) date from? Dublin has them in places also (despite having had older columns in some places - many replaced now). In Limerick they are most prevalent on the three main arterial routes into the city centre - Dublin Road, O'Connell Avenue, Ennis Road.

A slightly amusing thing I noticed on some lampposts in Limerick though is that recently they have had stickers/plates attached. In some cases these are for ESB networks including a number (not the same as the existing numbers) and the ESB logo. In other cases though a very basic sticker has been slapped on saying "property of the local authority" which looks more amateur, like someone sharing a house labelling all their food. I didn't know that the local authority actually owned any of the columns!

dowlingm

Better to paint than replace, no?

Victor

Zoney wrote: »

Also, it has been done from time to time in the past (at least in Limerick). It's interesting that the really old columns are still going and yet some of the ones from the 60s or 70s were replaced in recent years as they were rusting too badly! (The older ones are rusty too but presumably there's plenty more metal to get through - also they welded supporting plates to the bases a few years ago). Does anyone know when the old columns (big thick cylindrical ones that take overhead wires) date from? Dublin has them in places also (despite having had older columns in some places - many replaced now). In Limerick they are most prevalent on the three main arterial routes into the city centre - Dublin Road, O'Connell Avenue, Ennis Road.

Traditional poles would tend to be cast iron and rather heavy and expensive. The risk is cracking and they are rather unkind to vehicles that crash into them.

Timber poles are probably mostly dating since the 1920s. The don't look the best in an urban environment.

Most concrete poles are probably from the 1960s and 1970s - a little later than the UK, and many have survived better than those in the UK, many of which developed cracks due to poor reinforcement design in their early manufacture. Again, the risk is cracking and they are rather unkind to vehicles that crash into them.

Most galvanised steel poles would date from the 1970s on and would be relatively cheap and lightweight. These tend to be a bit more friendly to vehicles that hit them.

There are now some stainless steel poles, some with detachable bottom sections that can be overhauled in a cycle.

The heads and light fittings are sometimes changed and all bulbs tend to be changed annually (or similar time period). Its much cheaper to replace them all annually and repalce the small number that fail, than to replace them on an ad-hoc basis.

A slightly amusing thing I noticed on some lampposts in Limerick though is that recently they have had stickers/plates attached. In some cases these are for ESB networks including a number (not the same as the existing numbers) and the ESB logo. In other cases though a very basic sticker has been slapped on saying "property of the local authority" which looks more amateur, like someone sharing a house labelling all their food. I didn't know that the local authority actually owned any of the columns!

Councils will tend to own poles with street lights on them. ESB and eircom would own most of the others. In some cases, the ESB hold a contract from the council to supply, maintain, etc. & power the lights. In others, they just supply the power.

Carawaystick

seanor3 wrote: »

There were a few lads out where I live today painting the ESB poles.. The metal ones.
I was thinking, since I've been here this has never happened before. And now that we're in the middle of a recession somehow there's money for it?
Doesn't really make a lot of sense to me!

If you think a lick of paint is wasting money by the esb, wait til they spend 40 million euros changing their name to improve competition in the the energy market. Thats 40 million that wont be paid to the exchequer in a dividend. Brian Cowen thinks this is ok though.

Paparazzo

Zoney wrote: »

Also, it has been done from time to time in the past (at least in Limerick). It's interesting that the really old columns are still going and yet some of the ones from the 60s or 70s were replaced in recent years as they were rusting too badly! (The older ones are rusty too but presumably there's plenty more metal to get through - also they welded supporting plates to the bases a few years ago). Does anyone know when the old columns (big thick cylindrical ones that take overhead wires) date from? Dublin has them in places also (despite having had older columns in some places - many replaced now). In Limerick they are most prevalent on the three main arterial routes into the city centre - Dublin Road, O'Connell Avenue, Ennis Road.

A slightly amusing thing I noticed on some lampposts in Limerick though is that recently they have had stickers/plates attached. In some cases these are for ESB networks including a number (not the same as the existing numbers) and the ESB logo. In other cases though a very basic sticker has been slapped on saying "property of the local authority" which looks more amateur, like someone sharing a house labelling all their food. I didn't know that the local authority actually owned any of the columns!

The local authority look after public lighting. ESB supply everything up to a public lighting minipillar. I think ESB own poles with both network and public lighting, but local authority own the light at the top

jack presley

Paparazzo wrote: »

The local authority look after public lighting. ESB supply everything up to a public lighting minipillar. I think ESB own poles with both network and public lighting, but local authority own the light at the top

ESB did own the public lighting up until recently but they offloaded it to Airtricity.

Regarding the painting, it's obviously for necessary maintenance reasons. They're hardly painting them for a laugh or just to keep a few lads busy.

Zoney

jack presley wrote: »

ESB did own the public lighting up until recently but they offloaded it to Airtricity.

I think they offloaded the public lighting business *only*. I don't think that means they got rid of actually owning the columns. Someone else can run the business of lighting without owning all the poles (indeed this asset labelling suggests the council own some poles despite someone else directly dealing with the lighting itself).

Also, another reason it is unlikely ESB networks included any columns and such assets is that they are used for electricity distribution (not just lighting) as well as telecoms in some places (i.e. ESB telecoms - fibre etc.)

ESB networks have fibre for example on some of the columns near Limerick barracks and Newtown Pery/People's Park.