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Conductors & Materials


A New Age for Toughened Glass Insulators - With Clarity Comes Safety

INTRODUCTIONIn 2005 an article about toughened glass insulators (TGI) titled “Return to Clarity” was published. Fifteen years later, this sequel article by a team including the two original authors, picks up where the former concluded with optimism about the future of TGI technology...

Vegetation Management


Advanced Survey Technologies Deliver Clear View of Geologic Hazards

Electric utilities commonly use trained foresters, traversing thousands of miles, to manually identify vegetation or other geographic hazards posing risks to transmission infrastructure. For one utility in the Western United States, the challenging terrain and accuracy limitations of laser range...

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...

Outage Management & Restoration


The Fight Against Animal-Caused Power Outages

Every day across the country, animals enter substations for warmth, food, security, or simply out of curiosity. In many areas, wildlife intruding into power equipment has become the #1 cause of outages, according to a report from the American Public Power Association (APPA) – even...

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...

Pole Line Hardware


Fighting Wildfires to Increase Pole Protection

Evaluating pole selection for increased protection BY BUTCH BERNHARDT, North American Wood Pole Council The number of wildland fires reached record levels in many states in 2014, prompting questions about what poles perform more efficiently in fires: steel or wood. Research from a bulletin...

Overhead T&D

Outage Management Toolbox

Nine capabilities required for an effective OMS system

BY MICHEL GILLES, Intergraph

Increasing or maintaining power reliability is the fundamental charter for utility companies. For electric utilities to meet customer expectations and adhere to government regulations, they require an efficient way to restore power as quickly as possible when service interruptions occur. While advanced distribution management systems have a role to play in the evolution of a Smart Grid, core outage management fundamentals remain incredibly...

Overhead T&D Articles