Built to Last: BPA’s 22-Year-Old Weather Station

Bonneville Power Dam ( Photo Credit: Rafael Kaup / BPA) “Your company is by far a top notch best in customer service I’ve ever dealt with and your products are of the highest quality.” We recently heard from Mike Finn, HDVC Craftsman at Bonneville Power Administration. Back in 2003, Mike installed a Capricorn 2000 Weather Station at a BPA site. More than two decades later, it's still going strong. “I remember installing this over 20 years ago and have done very little to fix it,” Mike told us. “I still use the same system and will continue to do so.” For BPA, a major provider of hydroelectric power in the Pacific Northwest, accurate weather data is critical for tracking environmental conditions that affect transformer performance. “Our outside equipment has AC units but I need to have data on our transformers both inside and outside of the cabinets," Mike explained. “It is very important to monitor ambient temperature as we have had AC units fail. We use (the weather station) ...