Line Life Podcast

For this audio story in our ICYMI series for the T&D World Line Life Podcast, we are continuing our coverage of wildfire mitigation with the narrated version of the article, "A Strategic Approach to Wildfire Risk Mitigation." This story, which was written by Alireza Majzoobi and Zhenzhen Zang of Quanta Technologies and Daniel Haughton of LUMA Energy, was originally published in the May 2025 Wi...

For our Fourth of July episode of the Line Life Podcast, we are celebrating those who dedicate their lives to service, not only in the line trade but also through the U.S. military. Our guest, SSG Christopher Garrett, discusses the opportunities available to lineworkers through the U.S. Army Reserve and active-duty in the 249th Engineer Battalion or Prime Power.  He traveled from Fort Belvoir in V...

T&D World covers wildfire mitigation year-round, but each May, we devote a special section or supplement to this topic. This audio story in our ICYMI series examines how Portland General Electric (PGE) is adopting a holistic approach to mitigation, setting a model for preventing wildfires in the Northwest.  To read the full story, which was authored by Ben Felton, executive vice president and...

T&D Talk is a special series on the T&D World Line Life podcast channel . For each episode, companies can share their stories about how they are supporting the electric utility industry. Through their tools, technologies, products and services, they are helping lineworkers and fieldworkers improve their productivity and safety. For Part 2 of a three-part series sponsored by Southwire, we a...

Alman Kerste, a father of three kids, grew up in California and worked for Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) before relocating to the Kansas City area, where he now works for Evergy. He has spent nearly two decades in the line trade, most recently as an evening troubleman and a journeyman lineworker for a C&M crew in a district. During this Line Life Podcast interview, he talks abou...

The clean energy transition is expected to create as many as 150,000 new jobs in Illinois by 2050. As ComEd builds its workforce, the utility is taking steps to reflect the vibrant communities it serves, which comprise more than 9 million people who speak more than 50 languages and reside in both rural and urban areas. In this audio story for T&D World's Line Life Podcast's ICYMI series, ComEd...

For our 110th episode of the Line Life Podcast, we are highlighting David Hernandez, the regional operations supervisor at Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC). He worked for Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative (GVEC) for 22 years before he joined PEC in 2020.  In this interview, recorded at the 2024 International Lineman's Expo, he discusses how he first got involved with the Rodeo in 2000 and...

In the line trade, storm restoration is a part of the job. Lineworkers work through the night in severe weather conditions to rebuild infrastructure and restore power. In our May 2025 issue of T&D World, we featured the story, "Entergy Shares Strategies for Storm Response," to highlight best practices. The article, which was written by Bill Perry, explores four tactics for better restoration f...

T&D World's Faces of the Future department highlights up-and-comers in the line trade. For this week's episode, we are highlighting Vincent Napolitano, an apprentice for Ameren Illinois and a competitor at the International Lineman's Rodeo. During his apprenticeship, he is learning new things every day and also helping others who are just starting in the line trade. He trains both in the class...

For our latest episode in our ICYMI series for the Line Life Podcast, we are airing the audio story, "Investigating Power Line RFI," from the May 2025 field-focused Electric Utility Operations section in the T&D World print magazine.  In this article, Jon Backman, a journeyman lineworker with 20 years of experience in the line trade, shares strategies on how lineworkers can find and eliminate...

Ryan Lucas, who was born in British Columbia, Canada, grew up around the line trade and spent 15 years in the field, five years in management and then instructed line school students. During his career, he worked in remote, urban environments and also specialized in helicopter and barehand work. In March 2019, he launched the Powerline Podcast as a way to share stories about the line trade. During...

For this Line Life Podcast episode in our ICYMI series, we are featuring the narrated version of the article, "Three Focus Areas to Build a Safer Network," by Jason Marsh, damage prevention supervisor for New York State Electric & Gas Corp (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. (RG&E). This story, which was originally published in the March print issue of T&D World magazine, sh...

Happy National Lineman Appreciation Day to all our Line Life Podcast listeners! To celebrate all the hard-working lineworkers out there, we are releasing a special episode today focused on Arthur William Muñoz, a journeyman lineworker for Salt River Project (SRP) in Arizona. He has been in the trade for 23 years and progressed from a trades helper to a lead lineman and working foreman to a section...

T&D World, which produces the Line Life Podcast, just launched a brand new podcast--the T&D World Podcast --to focus on the rest of the audience served by the magazine. Because one of the recent episodes is about line work, we are excited to share it with our Line Life Podcast listeners. This bonus episode features an interview between Christina Marsh, senior editor of T&D World magazi...

Transformer trips are a common problem, but the solution is sometimes not immediately obvious. This audio story, narrated from the April 2025 cover story of T&D World's print magazine, shares three stories from the field from Mose Ramieh of CBS Field Services. These examples illustrate that regardless of the complexity of the situation and system, it is often the simplest of solutions that is...

To continue to provide resilient, safe and reliable power to its 1.4 million customers on the island, LUMA Energy has trained specialized lineworkers in Human External Cargo (HEC) work methods. This allows the trained lineworkers to access infrastructure in mountainous terrain, and the utility to place materials near work sites on the island. At the heart of this program is José  Luis Campos Figue...

T&D World has shared stories of construction projects and best practices for decades to help its readers and subscribers to discover innovative work methods and technologies. For the cover story of the February 2025 print magazine, we featured the article, "Dominion Powers Through Tough Terrain." A narrated version of the article is now part of our ICYMI series on the Line Life Podcast platfor...

T&D Talk is a special series on the T&D World Line Life podcast channel. For each episode, companies can share their stories about how they are supporting the electric utility industry. Through their tools, technologies, products and services, they are helping lineworkers and fieldworkers improve their productivity and safety.  For Part 1 of our new three-part series sponsored by Southwire...

This Line Life Podcast episode highlights the 25-year career of Jon Backman, an IBEW journeyman lineworker, troubleman for Puget Sound Energy and founder of Making Connections, LLC. The graduate of Northwest Lineman College started in the line trade in the utility line clearance program before joining an apprenticeship program at a municipality in Washington State. When he topped out as a journeym...

Our latest episode in our In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) series takes us to New York, where the New York Power Authority (NYPA) is streamlining its maintenance program with AI technology to detect anomalies and prioritize tasks in the field.  This article, which was originally published in the March 2025 issue of T&D World magazine, explores how the utility is using drones and cameras to captur...

For Part 8 of our Faces of the Future podcast series, we are highlighting Luis Gutierrez, an underground apprentice for ComEd in Chicago. During the episode, Luis describes what it's like to work in manholes as part of the underground crew, how he is learning new skills at ComEd's underground training center and what he sees in the future for the line trade. He also shares his safety strategies wh...

Tree crews and lineworkers often work side by side, especially following storms. This T&D World Line Life Podcast episode explores the impact of artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) on utility vegetation management and the electric utility industry. Guests include Phil Swart of Clearway Industries; Jason Grossman , manager of vegetation management for L...

Brian Lozano, a journeyman lineworker for Midwest Energy, shares his story of working on the line in Hays, Kansas. The 28-year-old father of two started working for a contractor in Colorado in 2016, and six years later, he moved to central Kansas to work for Midwest Energy. In his service territory, he responds to wind and tornadoes, but he has also provided mutual aid when he worked for a contrac...

This episode of the Line Life Podcast takes us to Nebraska, where Brittany Grammer is studying to become a lineworker at Northeast Community College. Todd Pfeil, an instructor of the Utility Line Courses and an alumnus from the program, shares the story of the 36-year-old mother of four and the only woman in her class of 48 future utility lineworkers. The episode, which is part of our ICYMI series...

For Part 7 of our Faces of the Future series for the Line Life Podcast, we are featuring Bryce Zahn, an apprentice lineworker for Capital Electric Line Builders. For this episode, he shares his story about restoring power following Hurricane Helene and spending two weeks in North Carolina helping Duke Energy get the lights back on following flooding and mudslides. Bryce describes what it was like...