Electricity Forum Intelligent Power Today Magazine Arc Flash Clothing

Wire and Cable


How Modern Conductors are Improving Grid Reliability and Much More

Reflections: Nearly twenty years ago when I got into the energy business, reliability was a second-tier design objective for most transmission engineers. Safety factors had already been established and the materials we used for structures and powerline wires (conductors) were well known. While...

Underground Distribution


FERC Complaint Targets Duke, PJM Transmission Planning

A coalition of large energy consumers and ratepayer advocates has filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), urging the agency to prohibit transmission owners from independently planning "local" transmission projects exceeding 100 kilovolts (kV). The coalition argues...

Overhead Distribution


Q&A: Transmission Line Inspection Using Robotics

A: Hydro-Québec’s power transmission system, the most extensive in North America, covers close to 34,000 km. Similar to many power utilities, we need thorough infrastructure inspections to ensure system reliability, availability, and performance.Therefore, we have, developed robotic...

Conductors & Materials


Solving Underground Cable Problems with Partial Discharge Testing

How to prevent failure with partial discharge testing BY HENNING OETJEN, Megger Partial discharge (PD) measurements are increasingly used as a reliable and non-destructive diagnostic method to detect weak spots in the insulation of underground cables. Routinely, partial discharge measurements are...

Case Study


Case Study: Rapid Changes in Bushing Health

IntroductionContinuous online monitoring of bushings provides real-time information which can result in the early detection of a possible failure. Challenge: A Major AlarmA prominent U.S. utility was looking for a way to improve system reliability for their 138kV assets. They researched and...

Infrastructure & Technologies


Fiber-Reinforced Composite Cross Arms for Transmission Structures

Fiber-reinforced polymers versus traditional cross arms materials BY JANOS TOTH & GRANT LOCKHART, FRP Transmission Innovations Inc. Recently, utilities have started using newer options such as component polyurethanes instead of older, widely used conventional materials. Specifically,...

Overhead T&D

"Smart" Insulator

Transmission Line Resiliency

Resiliency is a term used more and more by transmission line stakeholders including designers, operators, and owners. Resilience is simply defined as toughness or the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. It can be used to describe a system, an object or even a person. Dr. Ginsburg, child pediatrician and human development expert, proposes 7 C’s that make up being resilient – competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping and control. Although some of these words may...

Overhead T&D Articles