OMICRON Magazine

THE RIGHT DECISION Christian Vermeulen discusses Recloser Control testing with ARCO 400 Christian, would you please give us some information about your employer and yourself? Christian Vermeulen: Founded over 80 years ago, Cherryland Electric Cooperative is a not-for-profit, member-owned electric utility serving 35,000 members in six counties in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The cooperative’s distribution system includes approximately 4,800 km (3,000 mi) of line covering 3,600km² (1,400 mi²) of service territory. I received my electrical and electronic engineering degree from Auckland University (New Zealand) in 2011. After that, I worked for two years with Aurecon, a global engineering and in- frastructure advisory company in South Africa. For the last four years, I have been working as an Electrical Engineer at Cherryland Electric Cooperative in Grawn, Michigan. My role at Cherry- land varies greatly from drone opera- tor, general system design engineer, field technician, SCADA technician, asset manager, dispatch supervisor, programmer and more. I enjoy being outdoors, working on home electronic projects, and flying drones. Why is a regular maintenance pro- cess important for Cherryland and its customers? Can you tell us more about your maintenance strategy? Regular recloser maintenance goes much deeper than simply improving reliability numbers or validating reclos- er curves. For us, it touches all aspects of our mission as an electric coopera- tive: Member focus and affordability 26