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Vegetation Management


Vegetation Management Best Practices

Reduce common risks and maintain system reliability BY SARA SANKOWICH, Unitil Corporation Most North American electric utilities understand that vegetation management is a key factor in maintaining system reliability. While many utilities have designed and implemented vegetation management programs...

Pole Line Hardware


Roping Electrical Equipment

How synthetic ropes show results for heavy lifts BY BILL PUTNAM, Yale Cordage Years ago in Oklahoma, an investigation ensued after a pole-mounted transformer dropped thirty feet off a wire winch line and onto the foot of a line worker during a routine maintenance operation. Initially thought to...

Case Study


FirstEnergy Explores Alternatives to PJM Capacity Market

In a strategic move aimed at enhancing its power supply reliability, FirstEnergy is actively exploring alternatives to the PJM capacity market. This development reflects the company’s proactive approach to addressing challenges within the existing market structure and ensuring a more robust...

Overhead Distribution


Building a better world of smart structures on the smart grid

It is a truth universally acknowledged that billions of people around the world live in poverty. But does it have to be that way? Today’s technological progress means that tomorrow we will be able to produce more, more efficiently – lifting people above the breadline with accelerated...

Conductors & Materials


Detecting Faults in Underground Networks

Enhancing protection using directional faulted circuit indicators BY CHRISTOPHER EVANICH, Thomas & Betts Underground electrical networks provide reliable service to end users, but create problems for utility personnel in locating faults. Electric utilities who utilize an underground network...

Infrastructure & Technologies


Estimating Transmission Costs for New Generation Technologies

Often when project developers talk about the cost of a new power plant, wind farm, or solar installation, they’re referring to the capital cost of building a facility. Certainly those development costs have dropped over time—especially for wind and solar. But developers overlook the...

Overhead T&D

Copper Theft: A Call to Action

How utilities can stand firm to save money and save lives

BY PHILL FELTHAM, Executive Editor
Electricity Today Magazine

Copper theft has become a growing problem for utilities in Canada and the United States. This precious metal has increased in value in recent years, so thieves are stripping copper from substations and power lines to make money. Unfortunately, copper theft does more than cost millions of dollars in damage for utilities; it costs lives as...

Overhead T&D Articles