In our Spring 2019 issue of Danella Pride, we announced Danella’s expansion into California. Since then, Danella’s team has expanded significantly. It has grown to include more employees and additional key services. Read about how Danella has expanded to the West Coast, as well as the East Coast.
West Coast Expansion
Seven days a week, the Danella Power Services of CA crews are undertaking the work of relieving a bottleneck of distribution work in Southern California. The work of pole replacements, distribution maintenance, and construction in suburban and mountainous areas has brought new challenges to our California division. The mountains present a challenge in getting materials, equipment, and lineman to remote, inaccessible locations. Over the summer, Danella began to engage in Helicopter Pole Sets.
Challenging Working Conditions
Temperatures, winds, and elevations are continuous challenges for the team, as many lineman hike to the site and dig pole trenches by hand. Oskar Granquist (CCM3), noted, “The region in the San Bernardino Mountains, which are located in South California, is in some cases hazardous as slopes are steep. Rockslides are common, and conditions vary daily. The high winds and temperature ranges are ever changing and affect flying conditions. Flash floods, snakes, snow and ice conditions on steep slopes also present a challenge.”
Thus far, Danella has completed approximately a dozen helo-assisted pole placements and more are expected in the coming months. This new work adds additional experiences to the ever-growing services Danella offers our customers.
New Electrical Pole installation in Southern California by the DPS-CA team Photo: JPG Photography
East Coast Expansion
The East Coast operations for Danella Power Services (DPS) has grown exponentially. With leadership from Thomas Tacconelli (Vice President, Electric), Hank Boldyzar Jr. (Operations Manager), Hank Boldyzar Sr. (Manager – Substation Services), Nathan Gagnon (Manager Estimating & Business operations), Frank Renner (Operations Manager) and a crew of experienced general foremen, foremen, and linemen, the operation has added numerous projects throughout the country.
GIS (Gas Insulation Substations)
“Power Services continues to provide electric make-ready-work services for our customers in upstate New York,” stated Tom Tacconelli. “Our work has also expanded into Western Pennsylvania, which allows us to include distribution maintenance and aerial cable replacement. The team has also won contracts in Indiana and Texas through the addition of Electric and Gas Insulation Substations (GIS) to our services profile. With the combined 100+ years’ experience of our team, we are looking to become a major competitor in the GIS sector in 2020 and beyond.”
Our team continues to offer our customers a quality and safe experience, which has become expected of Danella.
For those unfamiliar with GIS, it provides a lower operation and maintenance cost to Danella’s customers, as it is enclosed and insulated against mother nature and allows for a more compact footprint. GIS work is throughout the United States and can range in voltage. The addition of GIS maintenance, upgrades, and construction, to the Danella repertoire, has led to the potential expansion into the mid-west and additional western regions of the United States.
A team member from DPS-CA working on power lines in San Bernandino County, CA. Photo: JPG Photography
The team has also expanded into Massapequa, NY, and will begin a new distribution maintenance project in the Fall. Plan scope includes 14,000 feet of mainline to eliminate overload on current electrical lines. The project also includes replacement of poles, fuses, and transformers, with installation of new capacitor banks.
We are excited by the ever-growing contribution of Danella in the power industry. Look for continuing updates in future Danella Pride issues.
Again, welcome to all of our new employees who are continuing to help Danella grow further within the utility infrastructure field.
To learn more about Danella’s work in the power industry and other fields, visit our construction page.
Thank you to Oskar Granquist and Hank Boldyzar, Sr., for providing content for this article