DOWNLOAD PDF The span across the Allegheny River at the Buckaloons, placed back in the 1950s, was already scheduled to be replaced. However, one of Mother Nature’s strong fall windstorms put this project on the fast track. Nature’s Fury: Remnants of wood structure show damage after the fall storm The windstorm took down three old wooden poles on each side of the river, bringing down the 590-foot span and disrupting service along Route 337 for about 10 miles and along Route 62 for about eight miles. Power was rerouted through the Whig Hill substation, with very few voltage issues, even during the heavy draw from manufacturing plants in the area. Under Way: The new span goes up. Warren Electric Cooperative (WEC) stepped into the future by using poles that are recycled fiber/resin, 70 feet in length and 5,000 pounds in weight, but telescopic for easier transportation, fewer highway permits and efficient installation. They are environmentally friendly, cost effective and fireproof, with a 100-year lifespan. Fiber/resin poles are one-third the weight of wooden poles. “WEC linemen enjoyed the challenge of this new technology,” notes Chris Evans, system engineer. “The poles arrived quickly on site with technicians provided to train the linemen on installation. This was the first use of these fiber/resin poles in Pennsylvania.” Do It This Way: On-site training and job briefings are conducted before work begins. Materials were received in about two weeks, training took four days and the span was replaced and in service in two weeks. Traditional utility poles have distinct disadvantages. Wooden utility poles are probably the most common utility pole in use today, followed by concrete and steel. Wooden utility poles are susceptible to rot or destruction because of weather and bug infestation. To prevent the destruction of the poles, many wooden poles are soaked in creosote. However, WEC does not use creosote. There are safer choices of wood preservative treatments including: Penta (pentachlorophenol, a pesticide), CCA (Chromated Copper Arsenate, rendering the wood fiber useless as a food source for fungi and termites) and ET (Emulsion Treated, a lubrication oil). Creosote is a highly toxic substance that has possible links to cancer in humans. The creosote can leech out of poles onto the ground and eventually end up polluting water sources. Even with the creosote application, wooden poles still have a limited life span, and they need extensive maintenance and routine replacement. Concrete poles have been used in place of wood in some places. Unfortunately, concrete poles are extremely heavy and often require a crane or special machinery to assemble the pole in the field. Also, these poles are a problem in remote locations because the weight of the pole requires the use of heavy trucks to transport them. Steel poles are lighter than concrete, but remain burdensome and are susceptible to environmental factors, like rust. Steel poles also can present a danger to people working on or near the poles. (Information from www.wipo.int) Helping Hands: Project representatives shown left to right are: Bob Kunkle, Shanahan & Associates for Geotek/PUPI fiberglass arms, Chris Evans, WEC engineering and operations manager, and Gary Coughlin, HD Supply for RS Technologies Inc.

DOWNLOAD PDF By Kevin C. Coates Utilities have been working with several composite pole manufacturers and deploying various types of composite poles to service locations as pilot projects to evaluate composite pole performance. Recent winter storms have shown that composite utility poles have some important advantages over wood, concrete and steel structures. The storms that blasted across Canada and the northern tier of the United States this past winter often left behind a beautiful blanket of snow and ice. Only with some of these storms, the peace and tranquility that normally accompanies the end of a gentle snow fall was instead punctuated by loud periodic “cracks” and “booms;” the sounds of wood poles snapping like toothpicks, felled by trees that collapsed under the weight of massive amounts of ice and snow. Environmental regulations now consider treated wood poles as hazardous waste. In several instances, composite utility poles were installed as pilot projects in amongst the old wood pole infrastructure. To the amazement and pleasure of the host utilities, none of the composite utility poles came down or were significantly damaged. The various composite pole manufacturers could not have asked for a better test to prove the durability of their innovative poles. What is now becoming increasingly obvious to the electric power industry is that some composite utility poles have finally matured into the “ready for deployment stage” where they can now be accepted as part of a utility’s replacement pole inventory. And, small wonder considering the potential cost savings that composite poles represent for utility pole installation, maintenance, repair, replacement, life cycles, and disposal. The effects of weathering, termites, woodpeckers, rusting, high winds, and fires take a toll on pole infrastructure every year, which of course drives up maintenance costs, and reduces overall system reliability. The new generation of composite poles effectively mitigate these negative effects. Significant advancements have been made in the design and manufacture of transmission and distribution poles using new high-strength E-Glass fibres and polyurethane resins. Utilities are beginning to recognize that composite poles manufactured with these new materials hold promise for dramatically reducing pole life cycle maintenance and the need for frequent pole replacements, even for reasons other than age. These improvements also hold promise to reduce the initial cost of setting a pole as well as reducing the need for pole replacements. Background The first poles used to support telegraph lines in the 19th century were from old growth or ancient forests and typically came from very dense and resilient hard woods. Over the years, old growth forests were decimated and ceased to be the primary source for transmission and distribution poles. Today’s rapid growth tree farms now produce, over decades, a pole with somewhat degraded properties; mainly, reduced durability, stiffness, and longevity. This means new wood poles are less robust and do not resist insect infestation or wood rot as well as the older generation poles. Service life is logically shorter. Rapid growth tree farms produce poles that are less robust and do not resist insect infestation or wood rot as well as older generation poles. To enhance pole longevity, today’s wood poles are treated with pentachlorophenol (a known carcinogen) suspended in a light oil (creosote) to enhance pole treatment. This eventually presents a handling and disposal challenge for utilities at the end of a pole’s service life. Environmental regulations now consider treated wood poles as hazardous waste; a significantly more expensive proposition than normal landfill disposal. Wood poles have another vulnerability that is especially problematic in forested areas – they burn. This is where composite poles have a distinct advantage – they resist fire and will not support combustion without the addition of an external heat source. Composite Characteristics While not fireproof, composite poles are extremely fire resistant; especially, when coated with fire retardant. A propane flame can cause a composite pole to smolder with a limited amount of flame when applied directly to the surface of the pole, but as soon as the flame is removed, the composite material ceases to smolder or produce flame. This makes composite poles ideal for deployment in forested areas. More importantly, after exposure to fast moving brush fires, the poles will not likely require replacement and will continue to support the lines and equipment with no loss of strength. The resilience of composites is one of their more desirable features. Composites allow strength parameters to be accurately “dialed-in” during manufacturing to meet the job specification. This saves time and money and eliminates waste. The service life of a composite pole is conservatively rated at 70 years on average. In addition, composite poles are extremely light weight, strong, and do not lose their strength over their lifetime. Industry Acceptance Obviously, any new product or technology offered to the electric power industry needs to be thoroughly tested before it can be deployed to a live grid. To better evaluate new electric power technologies that might enhance grid reliability and/or lower service costs, Southern California Edison (SCE) created a new section on their grid in San Bernardino known as the “Circuit of the Future.” SCE pilot project pultruded transmission pole. Southern California Edison worked closely with a number of composite pole manufacturers to help them design and manufacture a series of composite poles that meet SCE’s needs in terms of strength, durability, serviceability, and service life. Each composite pole company has its own patented method of production, which means each type of pole has a unique set of characteristics. Modular composite pole for SCE’s “Circuit of the Future”. The chemical composition of the resins, types and amounts of E-Glass, winding patterns and tensions vary significantly from one manufacture to another and account for various performance characteristic. These various manufacturing processes are naturally tightly held secrets. Hardware Design Attaching equipment to hollow composite poles, rather than solid wood poles, requires different hardware and methods. In most cases, hardware installation is very straightforward. For instance, rather than drilling holes and then bolting brackets directly into wood, a composite pole requires that a hole be drilled completely through both sides of the pole with the equipment brackets being attached

DOWNLOAD PDF Two new 105-foot composite fiberglass poles were set Dec. 27 on a Cinergy 138kV line one mile west of Clarksville Substation #327. The poles are on each side of a 700-foot span across Silver Creek and the levee. The original wood poles had to be replaced due to severe woodpecker damage. Replacing the damaged poles with more wood was considered, as were steel and concrete. Composite fiberglass poles were selected for several reasons. Fiberglass poles are resistant to insects, birds, and animals. Ground line decay is not a concern. And installation only requires the use of a single line truck. Also, there was only a two- to three-week wait for the fiberglass poles compared with up to six months for the alternatives. The composite fiberglass poles were easy to deliver to the job site. They came in five sections with the longest 35 feet in length. The total weight was 2,689 pounds, compared with 9,000 pounds for a comparable 105-foot class, H2 wood pole. Minimal traffic control measures were needed compared with those required to navigate a 105-foot wood pole through the city streets. The project’s engineer, Brian McNew of T&D Projects Engineering, was on site along with the factory representative, Gerry Thomas for RS Technologies, to lend their expertise to the project.

DOWNLOAD PDF By Milena Radakovic Utility poles, which help light the continent and provide voice services, are a key component of the electrical grid’s infrastructure. Recent developments in advanced materials technology have created significant breakthroughs allowing for vastly improved designs and offering numerous benefits for today’s utility companies. RS Technologies, the operating division of Resin Systems Inc., a developer of composite materials, has created a next-generation utility pole: the RS modular composite utility pole for the transmission and distribution industry. Made from its proprietary Version™ resin and a sophisticated filament winding process, these poles provide superior performance characteristics and are a highly cost-effective solution compared to traditional wood, concrete, or steel utility poles. Here are some of its features and reasons why the RS pole will save you money: STRONGER External factors such as climate changes, ultraviolet light, and insect/animal infestation can severely limit the lifespan of traditional steel, wood, and concrete poles. Other factors, including salt air and rust, can corrode or compromise a pole’s integrity, shortening its lifespan and making replacement a necessity. However, the material composition of the newer composite poles eliminates all of these wear factors. By being unattractive to insects, birds, and animals, it even eliminates damage caused by scratching, pecking, boring, and other destructive behavior. As a result, the RS pole can last up to 80 years, which is nearly 200 percent more than the maximum lifespan of a traditional utility pole. LIGHTER Just how light is this pole? First, less fibre is required to make the RS poles with equal or better strength than competitive solutions. Less fibre means that less resin is required to bond the fibres together. The final result is a reduction in pole weight of up to 45 percent, depending on the final height. Second, the pole’s uniform diameter also reduces the pole’s overall weight. Third, its modular construction allows RS to minimize the amount of excess resin and fibre in a finished pole by producing longer poles in interlocking sections. This interlocking design ensures that the poles can either be assembled prior to airlifting for ease of installation or stacked during installation using simple lifting apparatus rather than the heavy-duty cranes required to install heavier poles. Damaged sections can be replaced individually without the need for grounding or detachment of lines. The combination of the Version resin, the company’s proprietary filament-winding manufacturing process, and its modular design make the RS pole lighter than any traditional utility poles available today. As a result, its overall design offers significant cost savings for storage, transportation, installation, and maintenance. GREENER In addition to strength, weight, and cost efficiency, RS poles have many noteworthy environmental advantages. Almost all all-wooden poles currently in use today require chemical treatment with poisonous or carcinogenic substances in order to prevent corrosion. For example, Penta, the most popular treatment, has been classified as a persistent organic pollutant and has been banned in 26 countries. RS poles, by comparison, do not need to be coated with Penta, arsenic, or creosote. Likewise, the manufacturing process of Version resin, which is used in each RS pole, does not produce any volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or hazardous airborne pollutants (HAPs). It is non-toxic, thus eliminating emissions concerns in both the workplace and product installation sites. As a result, these poles are the most environmentally friendly ones available in the marketplace. BETTER Worker safety is of utmost importance to utility companies and the new composite poles provide two important benefits. First, since the poles are significantly lighter (either in sections or fully assembled) there is less chance of injury during installation or repair. Second, the composite resin material used to make RS poles is non-conductive; therefore, there is little risk of electrocution during installation or repairs of a live grid. Replacing traditional utility poles with next-generation composite poles can result in substantial long-term savings for utility companies as well as provide considerable environmental and worker safety advantages — all at a cost savings that will last throughout the remainder of the 21st century. Milena Radakovic is the vice-president of marketing for RS Technologies, the operating division of Resin Systems Inc. She can be contacted at (403) 219-8027 or by e-mail at milenar@grouprsi.com.