If you're wondering how actual utilities and installers feel about "advanced conductors" I had a long talk about it with some overhead lines experts and: it's negative
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I mean a rebuild with bigger conductor still does that job, it's just that the "advanced" conductors are less strict upgrades from ACSR and more like... they have pros and cons. As it was put to me, we have decades of experience with ACSR, we know how it ages, it's predictable, unlike the new
If there's one thing electric utilities have to be, it's "aware of political/reputation risk." Hard to get what you want at a rate case if you don't have good will, and hard to have good will if you're taking risks (even perceived) with reliability... So you do what you know how to do 🤷♂️
Not all innovation is good in a world where oopsies can't be git reverted right. I feel that makes so much of a difference. Very little in the data and info world have physical damage consequences.
Another thing I'd say is that usually a reconductor requires new towers. New conductors require different spacing, and a lot of towers are old by now, you don't want to just leave those to keep rusting with new shiny wires hanging off them even if you theoretically could
- Composite cores can't handle ice loading, also they deform permanently when they overheat, which actually makes them worse in emergencies
- self damping and other similar conductors are nightmares (or even impossible) to repair if they break, you have to redo the pull or accept bad splice solution
TS Conductor (https://tsconductor.com) has addressed all of these concerns and more with their proprietary design. That's what puts them ahead of the general "advanced conductors" pack at the moment. We'll be deep-diving into why in RMI's forthcoming alternative transmission tech planning guides.
Maybe - I asked about the AECC and at present we just don't have any experience with it. Probably willing to try on a short line and see what we run into, but there's a lot of hesitation to commit to a large project with something we have no experience installing
Re, deformation: That.... doesn't make sense? Carbon fibre is set by a thermoset epoxy. It can permanently break down at high temperatures, even burn, but it can't "relax" to a looser condition.
Are you talking about the core being completely destroyed & the metal bearing the weight, maybe?
It may depend on the conductor type? I know there are different types of composite cores, but yeah I believe it's mainly an issue of breakage, not *stretching*
Critical to remember here for non-utility folks that we measure reliability in decades - if a repair splice only lasts ten years we consider that a failure. If a conductor lasts 20, that's abysmal
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- self damping and other similar conductors are nightmares (or even impossible) to repair if they break, you have to redo the pull or accept bad splice solution
https://www.epri.com/research/products/000000003002030547
Are you talking about the core being completely destroyed & the metal bearing the weight, maybe?