Adoption of New Technology a Utility Perspective

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Adoption of New Technology a Utility Perspective

• CPUC Technology Workshop
• San Francisco, CA
• January 22, 2009
• Randy Hopkins
• Pacific Gas and Electric Company

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PGE Transmission System
70,000 sq. mile service territory
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PGE System

• 4.9 million electric accounts
• 3.9 million gas accounts
• Approximately 14 million customers
• Deliver Gas and/or Electric Service to
  approximately 1 out of every 22 Americans

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PGE System

• 96,500 Circuit-Miles of OH Electric Distribution
• 23,900 Circuit-Miles of UG Electric Distribution
• 18,025 Circuit-Miles of OH Transmission
• 165 Circuit-Miles of UG Transmission
• 45,800 Miles of Natural Gas Pipelines

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PGE Has Adopted and Continues to Assess New
Technologies

• ACSS
• 1056 circuit-miles of ACSS in service
• First installation in our system was in 1977
• Most utilities have yet to adopt this technology
• ACCR (3M)
• 1220 circuit-feet installed in May, 2005
• First ACCR installation in California
• ACCR is in the PGE toolbox

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Extensive Use of Real-Time Monitoring

• Used to validate static ratings on critical
  circuits
• 23 CAT-1s installed on 11 circuits
• First installed in 1999
• 1 Sagometer
• Installed on 500 kV river crossing in 2006
• Working collaboratively with the CEC and CAISO to
  establish methods of real-time operations

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What the Utility Needs

• Utilities are tasked with
• Protecting the safety of the public and workers
• Providing reliable service
• Being cost effective
• Protecting the environment
• Their facilities are
• Difficult to permit
• Costly to construct
• Need to be long-lived (40 years until forever!)
• If they are not long-lived, there is an
  environmental impact as utilities repair or
  replace

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Pre-requisites for New Technology

• Understanding of the Risk vs. Benefit
• Confidence that the technology will work
• It has to pass a high standard of reliability and
  safety
• Confidence that the technology wont be orphaned
• The know how to correctly apply the technology
• Design, installation, handling, storage, etc.
• A need that is not being met by existing
  technologies
• Opportunity
• It has to be the right solution for the
  application
• It has to be compatible with our existing systems

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Risk vs. Benefit

• Benefits have to be shown to exceed the costs
  associated with Risk
• Utilities need to understand the risk associated
  with new technologies in order to manage it
• Service life
• Failure modes
• Failure rates
• Even with due diligence, problems may show up
  years later

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So How Do We Know It Will Work?

• Usually comes with knowledge and experience
• Nothing gives you that warm fuzzy feeling like a
  technology with a long track record of success
• With innovation comes risk
• Leading edge vs. bleeding edge
• Lacking experience, how is confidence obtained?
• Testing
• Monitoring
• Industry guidance (IEEE, ASCE, EPRI)

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So, What Can Help Lower the Barrier to HTLS
Conductors?

• Thorough testing
• On-going monitoring
• Industry efforts
• IEEE Guide for Qualifying High Temperature
  Conductors for Use on Overhead Transmission
  Lines
• EPRIs HTLS Conductor Demonstration Project

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IEEE Guide

• IEEE Guide for Qualifying High Temperature
  Conductors for Use on Overhead Transmission
  Lines
• Task force chaired by 3Ms Herve Deve
• Intended to provide guidance to utility engineers
  for the testing and acceptance of new High
  Temperature Conductors
• Fill the gap when industry standards (ASTM, etc.)
  lag behind new products and developments
• IEEE guide addresses methodology for qualifying
  conductors that are not on the market yet
• Currently in draft form

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The Guide Will Provide Recommendations on

• Strand evaluation
• Conductor evaluation
• Accessory evaluation
• Qualification for installation
• Field testing

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Strand Evaluation

• Tensile Strength
• Density
• Tensile Modulus (with additionally - Strain to
  Failure)
• Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE)
• Fatigue Strength (axial direction)
• Creep at room temperature and use temperature
• Corrosion
• Moisture
• Strength after UV Exposure
• Hot/Wet (humidity)
• Resistance to brittle fracture
• Electrical Conductivity / Resistivity
• Strength Retention after 1000 hours exposure at
  use temperature.
• Strength Retention after 100 hours exposure at
  maximum rated temperature 50 C
• Bend Radius
• Shear Strength
• Compression Strength, (radial direction)
• Thermal Cycling
• Onset of Dielectric Breakdown

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Conductor Evaluation

• Breaking Strength
• Stress-Strain (include Modulus of Elasticity)
• Electrical Resistance
• Creep
• Conductor Thermal Expansion
• Weight
• Sheave
• Axial Impact, Radial Crush
• Torsional Ductility
• Sag-tension-temperature
• Aeolian Vibration
• Galloping
• Corrosion (Salt Spray)
• Fault Current Load
• Thermal Cycling
• Long Period Thermal Resistance
• Lightning Strike
• Corona
• Moisture and UV radiation

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Also, Includes

• Protocols for accessory evaluation
• Clamps, splices, dampers, spacers
• Qualification tests for installation
• Sag and tension
• Stringing and handling
• Field tests
• Installation, measurement, and monitoring

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EPRI HTLS Demonstration Project

• Managed by EPRIs John Chan
• 3 years of laboratory and field tests to validate
  manufacturers claims
• Includes ACSS, ACCR, ACCC, Gap, and Invar
• EPRI considering market-ready, or near
  market-ready, conductors

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Why Do We Need These Efforts?

• Many utilities lack the in-house technical
  expertise to evaluate new conductors
• Complete test data is not available for all
  manufacturers of HTLS conductors, etc.
• Manufacturers claims can be optimistic
• AND, the responsibility to make sound decisions
  is still the utilitys
• The results have to be safe and reliable
• Due diligence is necessary, but what does it look
  like?

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What Could Go Wrong?
Annealed aluminum strands of ACSS show greater
susceptibility to fatigue damage than
conventional conductors
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Non-Ceramic Insulators

• Widely deployed new technology of the 1980s
  and 1990s.
• Subsequent to wide-spread installation, several
  new modes of failure were discovered
• Water droplet corona
• Water intrusion into the end fittings leading to
  brittle fracture
• Internal arcing due to presence of water in the
  rod
• Now, many in the industry are rethinking the
  expected service life and restricting the use of
  NCIs.

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Non-Ceramic Insulators
Water droplet corona damage led to failure
This type of failure was never even considered
when the new technology was implemented
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New Technology Must Meet a Need

• The SLiM (Sag Line Mitigator) Device is an
  example of a technology that works, but where
  market penetration may be difficult due to a
  perceived lack of need.
• The SLiM Device is used to improve ground
  clearance in critical spans during periods of
  high sag by reducing the effective length of the
  conductor, thereby reducing sag
• This is important since lines are typically
  thermally constrained by ground clearance
  requirements

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SLiM During Testing
Full scale tests performed at PGEs Livermore
facility in 2002. Fault current tests performed
at Kinetric.
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SLiM (cont.)

• However, the SLiM must compete with traditional
  methods of improving sag in critical spans
• re-sagging the conductors
• raising towers
• These traditional methods are often less costly
• They are reliable and elegant solutions (i.e., no
  moving parts)

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New Products Often Have Special Requirements
Special post insulator deadend plate and formed
wire deadend grip to accommodate the larger
minimum bending radius of ACCR
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Other Considerations

• Logistics
• Does it make sense to have one of everything new?
• How do you store and track special materials
• How do you respond to emergencies
• Maximizing your system
• Standardize on the conductors that maximize your
  structure capacity

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What Can Utilities and Regulators Do to Help?

• Encourage and support research programs like the
  CECs TRP and EPRI HTLS
• Encourage utility participation in industry
  groups to develop technical expertise
• Recognize the risk inherent in new technologies
  and manage it through comprehensive testing and
  on-going monitoring

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Conclusions

• New technology must pass a very high standard of
  safety and reliability
• Must fill a need and do it better than other
  available options
• Bad technologies have the potential for both
  systemic and catastrophic impact
• Deployment of poor technologies can be costly to
  correct

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Questions?