A recent study that takes an in-depth look at the environmental performance of wood and steel utility poles challenges current perceptions on the sustainability advantages of wood poles when compared with steel poles.
The detailed study, titled “Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Southern Yellow Pine Wood and North American Galvanized Steel Utility Distribution Poles”, compares the use of galvanized steel and treated wood utility poles over a 40-year time frame. It includes...
Overcoming everyday challenges with modern solutions BY DAVE BRYANT, CTC Global Corporation Utilities constantly face challenges associated with climate change. While coal plants are being retired as natural gas and renewable sources are being brought online to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,...
One of the important trends in design of new overhead lines over the past 20 years has been development of structures and designs that are less obtrusive and more pleasing visually. Much the same process has also been going on at substations. For example, even 25 years ago, efforts had already been...
Applying limited resources to critical, aging infrastructure BY MASSOUD AMIN, IEEE Smart Grid, University of Minnesota The Smart Grid’s contributions to improving electric utilities’ means of monitoring the condition of assets, providing enhanced situational awareness, and faster actionable...
Time to focus on planning contingencies and balancing risk BY DON ANGELL AND MARK RIVERS, Doble Engineering Company By definition for electric utilities, asset management refers to an established system used to monitor and maintain valuable commodities such as transformers and power lines....
Direct current (DC) is the preferred technology for moving large amounts of power across long distances. DC results in overall higher efficiency and reliability than an equivalently-sized alternating current (AC) system moving the same amount of power. The Advantages of DC More efficient: Over long...
Distributed energy resources (DERs) can benefit the power system and individual homes and businesses. DERs can increase the resiliency and reliability of the power grid, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce the overall power cost, and provide power at the point of use. Several types of DERs can...
Three-phase electric power systems are used for high and extra-high voltage AC transmission lines (50kV and above). The pylons must therefore be designed to carry three (or multiples of three) conductors. The towers are usually steel lattices or trusses (wooden structures are used in Germany in...
Insulators under fire, what are we talking about? A line directly in the fire is considered as lost A line near the heat of a fire can be saved What is the condition of insulators on a line nearby a fire? Reliability of insulators during or after a fire is a key consideration for T&D...
Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6) Gas is used as an electrical insulator and arc suppressant in high and medium voltage electrical equipment in the electrical power utility and industrial power industries. SF6 is also used in medical devices, metal production and other manufacturing applications. The same...
Since over 80% of electrical maintenance testing involves evaluating insulation integrity, the first and most important test done on electrical equipment is an Insulation Resistance (Meg) Test. This is because electrical insulation begins to age as soon as it’s manufactured and aging causes...
