• Posted: August 21, 2019
• Anthony Sage, Northerly Island, Taylor Electric

Powering Chicago member, Taylor Electric, was recently featured in an article for Electrical Contractor. You can read the full article here.

During a much warmer season, Northerly Island—a manmade peninsula along Chicago’s Lake Michigan shoreline where Meigs Field Airport once stood—serves as a summer concert destination. The park is 91 acres with an outdoor concert venue, now known as Huntington Bank Pavilion, which has been operated by Live Nation every summer since 2005.

The concerts vary in size, and some performers draw larger crowds. For example, Peter Frampton, Luke Bryan, and Slightly Stoopid, to Miranda Lambert, Ben Harper and Dave Matthews Band have performed there.

Every summer season, Taylor Electric Co. provides the power—all supplied by generators—that enable these events.

“You can’t build anything permanent,” said Anthony Sage, Taylor’s general superintendent. So, instead, crews bring generators on-site with as many as a dozen or more units powering all of the concert lighting, including stage lights and the power needed by the food, beverage and other concessions vendors.

“We work with Sunbelt Rentals and tap into a ComEd service,” Sage said. Typical venues serve an audience of 5,000 to 8,000, but numbers can get considerably larger. The Nickelodeon Slimefest, for instance, is part concert, part slime party for more than 10,000, and country music event Country Lakeshake draws about 30,000 people.

“We typically set up at the beginning of the season and then maintain and expand services for shows throughout the season,” Sage said. Each summer there may be about 30 different event dates.

To accommodate, Taylor has a team of dedicated electricians that spend summer days and nights working, meeting the electrical needs for each show and staying on-site to address any problem that could arise.

Generators can fail, so typically five or six electricians need to be accessible to work around the clock. Sunbelt provides the generators, from eight to 10 for a typical event and up to 20 for the larger events.

Because refrigeration is critical for the food trucks and other vendors, Taylor also maintains those generators and the fuel supply to them.

Taylor runs cable to temporary transformers for lighting, sound and power for the stage. Light towers provide outdoor lighting for the audience as well as the stage lighting for performers.

The performers bring power requirements of their own.

“When performers come in with buses, we plug in the power for their buses; we can handle up to six buses during a regular show,” Sage said.

Taylor grounds the stages and grandstands—an important feature in the stormy summer months of the Midwest.

Grounding is necessary for human safety at the events as well as to protect the electrical equipment. The 2019 summer season has been especially rainy, which doesn’t stop the need for reliable power.

“We need to make sure we keep cable and connections safe from water,” Sage said, adding that GFCI-protected circuits serve the electrical equipment and are regularly tested and maintained.

That doesn’t mean the equipment plugged into the power isn’t prone to problems. Vendors on-site are not always aware that plugging in floor-warming plates, space heaters or other cooking equipment can damage the system.

“It’s our responsibility to ensure vendors have their equipment set up properly,” Sage said.

Taylor takes on other smaller projects using temporary generator power. Sunbelt, for instance, contracts with Taylor to power festivals and fairs.

Taylor has had a role as the supplier for all 15 years of Northerly Island shows. The company also provides for other major events, including the stadium power used at Guaranteed Rate Field for the Chicago White Sox and Soldier Field for the Chicago Bears.