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 significantly diverse hazards and safe work practice strategies compared to “electrically non-qualified workers” who are constructing and maintaining portions of the underground plant.
Electrical distribution systems for equipment that is installed in enclosures such as manholes and vaults, cables and ducts set beneath the earth all need to be maintained by qualified electrical workers. Construction by non-qualified electrical workers near the underground plant is an ongoing process based on design and build.
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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...
Aging underground residential distribution (URD) cables is a growing problem in communities around the world, disrupting customers and causing business challenges for utility providers. But in most cases, the traditional remedy for URD cable failure—taking the impacted...
Exploring the benefits of wide-area monitoring BY TED MYERS, On-Ramp Wireless The average citizen and business experiences over 120 minutes of electricity outage duration a year. This has a significant societal impact costing 10s to hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Furthermore, the measure...
Distribution companies are continually looking for ways to improve system reliability, all while conserving capital investments and operational costs. With an aging infrastructure, one of the main issues that utilities face is a way to assess the actual condition of their capital assets. With...
In a significant move that underscores the growing demand for reliable and sustainable energy to power the expanding digital infrastructure, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved an interconnection agreement between Talen Energy, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Exelon. This...
The evolving demands of modern power grids necessitate the adoption of advanced technologies that can provide enhanced efficiency, reliability, and flexibility. Smart transformers are at the forefront of this technological revolution, offering a range of capabilities that significantly improve the...
In a significant move for Pennsylvania’s energy sector, State Senator Gene Yaw has introduced a transformative piece of legislation aimed at modernizing the state's approach to power plant development and capacity management. The bill, which has been the subject of considerable discussion,...
In a landmark move aimed at accelerating the U.S. transition to a more resilient and sustainable energy grid, the Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a groundbreaking investment of $2.2 billion in innovative transmission and energy storage projects across 18 states. This significant funding...
Aging underground residential distribution (URD) cables is a growing problem in communities around the world, disrupting customers and causing business challenges for utility providers. But in most cases, the traditional remedy for URD cable failure—taking the impacted...
Energy Ottawa offers a state-of-the-art, non-destructive cable measurement system for the dependable assessment of medium voltage distribution cables. We have partnered with National Research Council Canada (NRC), the Government of Canada’s premier research and technology organization, to...
