Today’s electrical infrastructure in the United States might have been viewed as a work of science fiction when the first commercial power grid was conceived and built in New York’s lower Manhattan in the 1880s. But it didn’t take long for fiction to become fact. Thomas Edison’s brilliant and innovative design led to the propagation of more than 4,000 individual electric utilities by the early 1900s, paving the way for the immense transformation of how Americans lived, worked and played.

But tremendous growth creates strain. To keep up with modern power demands, there are today nearly a half million miles of transmission lines that crisscross the country and more than 162,000 miles of overhead transmission lines. All of that transmission infrastructure handles more than 3.8 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity per year. Had he known what he started, Thomas Edison might have been both pleased and wildly concerned at the same time.

With power plants generating the nation’s power needs at an ever-increasing rate, the demands on maintaining uptime have become just as intense. Power outages are not only inconvenient for American consumers; they also result in reduced productivity, impaired safety, equipment damage and lost wages, with an estimated $33 billion in losses per year on storm-related downtime alone. Utilities are not the only ones experiencing unprecedented electrical demands. Corporate and industrial facilities also face increasing challenges in the creation and maintenance of efficient, consistent and reliable electrical systems, which if done incorrectly, can limit growth and negatively impact a company’s bottom line.

SYSTEM STRAIN LEADS TO OPPORTUNITY
Such system strain and requirements for efficient electrical delivery have also led to opportunity in the industry. One such success story comes from Minnesota-based RMS Energy. RMS has responded to the nation’s electrical demands by expanding upon its core competency of power plant bus duct system installation, maintenance and repair, to provide even more services that help keep electricity flowing at
power plants and industrial sites around the world.

Read full article in the SPECIAL TRANSFORMER EDITION.

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