Pondera Engineers - Services - Avista Utilities 230kV Conductor Study

Pondera Engineers just completed a conductor study for Avista Utilities to evaluate model an existing 230kV line and evaluate two ADSS low sag conductor alternatives, 1272 "Bittern" and 1590 "Lapwing".   TL-Pro was an invaluable tool for presenting the design options to the Avista design team to perform a virtual "fly through" review and to be able to identify and to mitigate the options in one meeting.  Some people say that you can't design by committee, but see what Avista had to say about the experience.

As you know, Pondera has been helping us with the design to increase capacity on the Beacon-Bell #4 230 kV line.  They've been using TL-Pro software to model the terrain, structures, and conductor along the line route.  They were able to use our recent GIS aerial photography to develop the digital terrain model (DTM).  Elevation data from the DTM was field verified by [names omitted].  I can't tell you how much money and time we saved by using our own GIS data rather than re-surveying the line.  10s of thousands.  Pondera was able to download our existing conductor and structure libraries developed by [names omitted].  In a few weeks time, they had a working "computer model" of our transmission line.   Yesterday, we sat down with two Pondera engineers to review the design.  In one day, we literally performed 2-3 weeks worth of hand-design.  Even with the computer tools, designing "by committee" was much more efficient than the conventional design/review/re-design process.  I think the light bulb sort of went off for everyone yesterday that indeed, you could design a transmission line using a couple of computers, seasoned designers, and one rookie project manager with a sore back.   The ability to use TL-Pro to spot structures (optimize), analyze conductor clearances, check structure loadings, review the aerial plan view for obstacles and overhead crossings, and do all of those things very "rapidly" will transform the way we do business.  Actually, it already is transforming our business.  (name omitted) is rapidly becoming our resident expert and (name omitted) is using the computer to design the Benewah-Shawnee line.  Personally, after spending several years designing transmission lines "the hard way", having that much design power consolidated in a little black box made me turn a nice shade of green.  It was Amazing.