OPALCO Golden Ticket Winners Chosen

— from Krista Bouchey for OPALCO —

This September, a historic event takes place that ensures islanders can maintain their quality of life for the next 50+ years. OPALCO will install 13,596 feet of a new, efficient and modern submarine cable in the crossing between Lopez and San Juan islands.

More than thirty OPALCO Co-op members entered a contest to name the submarine cable. The winning name is the “George Goff Memorial Cable” or “George” for short. The winning name was submitted by Lisa & Rex Guard of San Juan Island. George Goff was the San Juan District line superintendent for 34 years (1962-1996) and was instrumental in building our reliable electric system.

Seven runners up in the contest won golden tickets for the chance to ride on the charter boat to witness the cable installation up close. The runners up are: Rick Markov with “OPALCOtopus,” Evangeline O’Sullivan with “Eel-lectra,” Joanruth Baumann with “Ernestine,” Barbara Orcutt with “Kraken Cable,” Laurie Latta with “Mabel the Cable,” Sara Greacen with “Petra,” and Jake Perrine with “Jormungandr – Jojo.”

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”#778899″ class=”” size=””]The winning name is the “George Goff Memorial Cable” or “George” for short.[/perfectpullquote]

Replacing a cable installed in 1977, “George” is a well-armored cable built to last by Sumitomo USA. George has greater power capacity: each of the three phases of electrical conductor within the cable can independently carry the entire load of San Juan, Brown, Pearl, Henry and Speiden islands. Also, George includes 144 strands of fiber optics for remote monitoring of the cable itself, redundancy in our communications connection to the mainland and increased capacity for county-wide fiber communications.

Learn all about George at www.opalco.com/submarine. Regular updates and cool photos will be posted online. Follow us on Facebook (orcaspower) for real-time photos and videos of the installation.

Orcas Power & Light Cooperative (OPALCO) is our member-owned cooperative electric utility, serving more than 11,000 members on 20 islands in San Juan County. OPALCO provides electricity that is 95% greenhouse-gas free and is generated predominantly by hydroelectric plants. OPALCO was founded in 1937.
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Photos:

1. George Goff, OPALCO Superintendent circa 1970. Picture with (L-R): Donald White, Buyral Madan, George Goff, Neil McLachlan, Max Weidel, James Cahail, Allen Thompson, Robert Fralic.