Lake Worth's Pad Mounted Transformers

Tucked into the last page of the March 11 City Manager's report was a series of pictures of pad mounted transformers found in the city.  One would assume this is a representative sample of the condition of these important pieces of our electric utility infrastructure.  Typically, these are placed by the city for larger users of electricity - commercial and industrial clients.  When I supervised construction, these were one of the last things to be delivered by the power company - in my case it was FPL - and then they would issue a temporary release of power so that we could get our final certificate of occupancy.  

The point here is that the pad mounted transformers are owned by the power provider, not the private customer.  Periodic inspection, maintenance and replacement is required by the electric power provider in order to assure safe delivery of electricity and continued functioning of the transformers.  

This is the text that accompanies these pictures:

Looks like these procedures haven't been followed for a long time.  These pictures represent "just a few" of the conditions discovered.  

We need to be concerned.  The top picture looks like someone built a wooden structure over an existing transformer in an attempt to protect it from the elements - which may be akin to pouring gasoline on the fire, so to speak.