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Underground Distribution


Safety in Underground Power Systems

Protecting utility personnel working below ground BY MIKE DOHERTY, PowerTel Utilities Contractors Limited "Safety” in “underground systems” has different connotations for different sectors depending on the tasks performed. “Qualified electrical workers” can have...

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...

Outage Management & Restoration


How to Improve Crew Management

Utility implements new system to expedite restoration process BY BILL PERRY, MARCH 24 Media LLC Assembling and deploying utility crews for major events is often a manual, cumbersome process for utilities. When executives or the media ask the status of crews in the wake of storms, it can take some...

Distribution Protection


Coping with Extreme Weather Events

How to optimize the entire outage lifecycle BY RICK NICHOLSON, Ventyx The extreme weather just keeps coming. In 2012, there were 11 outages due to severe weather costing at least $1 billion. The year of 2013 had its share as well. More and more, the scale and variety of such major events are...

Pole Line Hardware


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...

Conductors & Materials


Converting Power Lines to Smart Wires

Increasing the observability and control of the transmission network BY FRANK KREIKEBAUM, JERRY MELCHER, & JULIE COUILLARD, Smart Wire Grid, Inc. The North American power grid has evolved into a connected set of four major interconnections delivering low-cost and reliable energy. The U.S....

Overhead T&D

Hardening the Power Grid

How to improve reliability by hardening the power grid

BY BO ZENG, WEI YUAN & LONG ZHAO, University of South Florida

North America relies heavily on its interconnected power grid. Throughout its history, the grid has provided years of reliable electricity to 300 million people to power home electronics, large industrial motors, critical machines in hospitals (that is, life support systems), among others. However, this reliability is now coming into question. The power grid is...

Overhead T&D Articles