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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.”

For more of the story, visit https://energized.edison.com/