We buy temporary power cable.

What temporary distribution cable actually is

Most temporary power around Houston is 600 V, with 2 kV appearing on larger spreads and at industrial sites where runs are long. These constructions are built for abuse rather than for a conduit: heavy thermoplastic or thermoset jackets, fine stranded conductors and a flex rating that lets the cable be dragged, coiled and re-used without cracking. Nothing about them is designed to be pretty.

The common types are SOOW and SEOOW, the heavier Type W and Type G single conductor power cable, and cam-lok feeder leads in 2/0 through 4/0 with lugs or plugs already fitted. Festoon cable for cranes and hoists is a fourth group, flat or round, with a strain bearing element built into the construction so the cable carries its own weight along the runway.

• Nitrile and CPE jacketed portable cord, 10 AWG to 4/0
• Type W and Type G single conductor power cable
• Cam-lok feeder leads with lugs or plugs fitted
• Crane festoon and reeling cable, flat and round
• Shore power leads and terminal distribution cable

Coiled portable cable is reviewed by the coil, not the reel. Say roughly how many coils and how long each one runs.

Where the heavy flexible lots come from

Turnarounds are the biggest source. A unit goes down, the contractor rigs temporary power for lighting, heat tracing, welding machines and pumps, and the cable lives on the deck for the length of the outage. At the end it is coiled, sometimes hosed off and sometimes not, then loaded back to the yard where it sits until somebody needs the space or the spread is written off.

Terminals and shipyards along the channel produce shore power cable, often in long leads with moulded plugs, plus distribution cable for yard power and for shipyard cranes. Construction sites in the Energy Corridor, out in Katy and east toward Baytown add their own, especially when a project is descoped and the temporary distribution is demobilised months before anybody expected.

Seasoned contractors know which lots are worth keeping. A spread that came back from a clean unit, was coiled on a frame and stored under cover is a different proposition from cable that spent the outage in a mud puddle beside a compressor. Ask the crew that demobilised it. Their answer is accurate and more useful than a description written weeks later.

Condition is the whole conversation with this cable

Flexible cable is designed to be handled, and handling is what wears it out. Look for abrasion through the jacket to the conductor, crush marks from being driven over, and deformation where a cable was tied off or hung across an edge. Flat spots and hard spots mean the insulation underneath has been pinched, and that does not relax once the load comes off.

Water is the second issue. Portable cable left in a puddle wicks moisture up the strands through an unsealed end, and once it reaches the conductor the corrosion runs under the jacket where nobody can see it. A cable cut and left open through a Houston summer is judged on that basis, whatever the jacket looks like from the outside and however neatly it is coiled.

Plugs and fittings deserve a sentence of their own. Moulded shore power plugs, cam-lok sets and lugged tails are part of a lot's usefulness where they are intact, and a reason to cut the ends back where they are not. Photograph the fittings with the cable, closed and open, so the type can be identified from the picture.

• Jacket abrasion, cuts and crush points along the run
• Ends: sealed and taped, or open to the weather
• Water damage and conductor corrosion at the cut
• Plugs, lugs and cam-lok fittings still fitted
• How long it has been outside, and on what surface

Length still counts, but flexibility is what is being judged. A hundred feet of Type W that coils easily is a better lot than twice the length in cable that has stiffened and cracked along the outside of every bend.

Sending a temporary power lot

List the cable type if you know it, the conductor sizes, roughly how much of each, and how it is stored: coiled, on a reel, or loose on a pallet. Say whether the ends are sealed. One photograph of a coil with the jacket print readable and one of a cut end will answer most of the questions before anybody visits, including the ones you would rather not answer twice.

Then say where the material is and what can reach it. A pallet of Type W in a yard with a forklift is simple. The same pallet at the back of a container, or in a laydown area behind a plant gate, needs planning, and gate hours, escorts and site safety rules all affect when a collection can actually happen.