We recently attended a minor league game (CHL) in Austin, Texas while on 
vacation, and they had 2 machines to clean the ice between periods.  One 
of them was a traditional machine with an engine (diesel?) and one was an 
electric resurfacer, an Olympic brand model.  Now, I've seen electric 
Zamboni's before, and they are battery powered and very quiet and 
unobtrusive.  The Olympic machine was the only time I have ever seen an 
electric machine that was powered by a very bright yellow power cord (the 
world's longest extension cord?)

The Olympia machine was connected to a swiveling head that rotated 360 
degrees to allow the cord to follow the machine around the rink as it 
cleaned the ice.  The power cord was coiled on a spring-loaded takeup reel 
on the machine, so that it fed out cord or pulled in cord as necessary to 
keep the tension at a point where the cord would stay up in the air.  The 
swiveling metal head where the cord was connected was moved out to a point 
on the ceiling near center ice at the beginning of the resurfacing period, 
via a metal rail that it was attached to.  The head was retracted along 
the rail to a position outside the boards between periods.

I have never seen this type of arrangement before.  Have other people seen 
this?  Is this standard for an Olympia electric machine, or is this an 
older technology that has been superceded by battery power?

The game was reasonably interesting, the ice was cold but rutted in this 
small, local arena that the Austin Ice Bats have moved to this season.  A 
few former college hockey players were on the teams, but not many.