Roswell's utilities are interesting and, to some extent, unique. I've talked about the water utilities elsewhere. Individuals have wells like the one above, but they're monitored. We're in a desert and water is a little more precious here than in some other places I've lived.
It's convenient that the aquifer is clean and under pressure and doesn't have to be pumped. On the other hand, it's hard (full of calcium) and apt to damage plumbing. We had a water softener but it only lasted for a couple of weeks before the water from it tasted like acid. It turns out that our hard water, though well within Environmental Protection Agency limits, will still overdrive ion-exchange water softeners.
I saw this little stream on the way into town one day. It just appeared. Actually, it was an irrigation ditch. But the water was crystal clear. I hope it stays.
Roswell's electricity comes from solar farms
Google Maps Street view of the solar farm on Pine Lodge Road
This farm, Roswell Solar Energy Center, and the companion Chavez Solar together put out 140 megawatts of photovoltaic generated electricity. This is enough electricity to run about 105,000 average American homes. There are plans to expand these facilities. Other solar farms in New Mexico sell electricity to other states
The panels track the sun and the facility provides storage batteries for times when the sun doesn't shine. The distribution station changes the direct current produced by the panels into high voltage alternating current for transmission.
I've traced lines from the farm shown above to my house.
Most of the lines in the Roswell area are above ground.
There are a lot of wires running around. Most are three phase which ends up as 240 volts at homes We recently had a thunderstorm that blew out one of our lines and left us with 120 volts only for awhile.
For the usual arrangements, the top three lines are three 120 volt AC lines with a phase.difference between any two lines of 120 degrees. The single line below them is the ground wire. The thick cable on the bottom is a fiber optics cable for telephone, cable TV, and/or computer signals. They're strapped to tension wires to take the stress off them.
The next major junction after the solar farm seems to be this substation at the junction of Pine Lodge Road and Main Street.
The city is supplied by 115 kilovolt transmission lines. Massive transformers like those pictured above step the voltage down to 15 kilovolt supplies to neighborhoods. There are high tension lines that enter the city with backup supplies of 345 kilovolts.
There are fixtures on the power lines that look rather arcane.
This is a step down transformer which drops line voltage to house voltage.
Fiber optics systems have their own appliances. This loop of cable allows some slack in case the line is damaged and they have to cut out a piece
This one really confused me when I moved into the desert. There's one of these metal grills between every other utility post. I looked it up and they're there to interfere with the standing waves that form on the line during windy days.
This box transmits information back to headquarters, for instance, in case of a power outage
The infrastructure fits us as a small town. I see posts about the roads being bad but I don't hear a lot of residents complaining and, as I walk, I don't hear a lot of cars hitting potholes as I have in much more populated areas where I've lived. Main Street is the best maintained roads followed by the main highways and the relief route (bypass). Main Street has sidewalks and bike lanes in decent condition. The further away from the main roads, sidewalks disappear quickly and quality of paving slowly decreases.
One side street, Pine Lodge Road, runs from the rural Pine Lodge neighborhood to Main Street at the north end of town. It is very rural with no shoulders and I walk it two or three times a week. It's work but it also lets me see much more of the desert and ranches
We have the other utilities but I don't notice that many people use gas. Larger ranches have butane and liquid fuel tanks.
In general, Roswell seems to have what it needs and maintains it.
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