SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS

MAINTENANCE & SYSTEM HARDENING

Maintenance

Reasons for System Maintenance Increase reliability Increase system longevity Increase customer relations Decrease outage size and outage times

Substation Maintenance Check grounds Visual leaks Bird Nests Signs of vandalism Cracked or chipped insulators Missing safety signs Cracked metering equipment Others

Transmission Poles Maintenance

Check for poles testing bad

Check for unlocked switches

Check for broken guy and ground wires

Check for unmarked guy wires

Distribution Pole Maintenance Check for broken guy and ground wires

Check for poles testing or visually bad

Check for unmarked guy wires

Continued Check for broken or

cracked insulators Blown or missing lighting

arrestors Leaking or damaged

transformers Possible PCB transformers

Continued Damaged secondary wires

Loose hardware Unusually lose primary or secondary wire

Mapping Maintenance Mutual Aid Contractors Storm restoration

Tree Trimming

Trees grow at a rate of 12-24 inches per year

System Hardening

Reasons for System Hardening Increase framing for damage

prevention Increase wire size for current

and anticipated load Increase pole size for

increased height of farm or highway traffic

Change voltage for more optimal operation of system

Creating loop fed systems

Underground Hardening Create loop fed systems Install fault indicators Mapping Converting Overhead to

underground

Overhead to Underground 5-10 times as costly as

overhead (con) More pleasing to

customers (pro) No tree trimming (pro) Increased outage times

(con)

Overhead Hardening Change from light braces to

heavy braces. Tightening hardware Adding or replacing lightning

arresters Adding guy wires Changing out bad poles or

having outside contractor restore pole

Vegetation Management Employ aggressive

trimming Enforce or implement

ordnances against dead or dying trees

Educate property owners on proper placing of new trees

Changing wire and wire size Changing bare copper to

ACSR Increasing wire size for

future demand Changing out open wire to

triplex (depending on company)

Tightening primary wire

Pole Size Increase

Increased height of farm equipment

Pole Size Increase

Change Voltage Converting from a Delta

system to a Y system make it possible to increase the load-carrying capacity to ≈73%

Voltage regulation is also greatly improved.

Many cities have already converted over to a Y system for the increased feeder capacity.

Creating loops or Back feed Underground distribution

loops Overhead distribution

loops Transmission loop

Smart Grid Automatic feeder switches Smart meter technology Advanced GIS mapping Dispersed generation Customer owned generation Green technologies

Conclusion System Maintenance

System Hardening