New Technology Increases Electricity Capacity
Southern California Edison installs new transmission wire that helps meet the increasing electricity demand in California.
Dangling 100 feet in the air, standing on small steel carts and using pure arm strength to scoot themselves along transmission lines, Southern California Edison crews put the finishing touches on a major project in Commerce.
The team just completed a first of its kind installation for SCE — new wire technology that increases the voltage capacity on transmission lines and can more easily meet the growing electricity demands in California, which is forecast to double over the next two decades.
“This new wire has a carbon fiber core which makes it a lot lighter,” said Darrell White, SCE journeyman lineman. “The benefit is we can increase the ampacity by just replacing the wire. Otherwise, we would need to change out entire towers to increase demand capabilities, which is a lot more costly and time-consuming.”
As electricity use continues to grow, so does the need for power, and transmission lines play a major role in meeting the demand. Building new lines is expensive and can take a decade or more to construct. That’s why SCE is using new technologies to get more out of what currently exists. By shifting to the new conductor, there is a 25-80% increase in capacity.
This project spans five miles, which may not seem long, but when it comes to reconductoring transmission lines, it can get tricky.
The project focused on updating the lines running throughout the metro Los Angeles area. To do that, crews used giant rollers to pull the old wire out, new wire in, install insulators and attach metal spacers to keep the lines from touching.
“This was a massive undertaking,” said Jamie Varela, SCE Transmission foreman. “I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some nerves involved, but it also gave us a lot of confidence to pull this off successfully.”
The yearlong endeavor took crews across the 5 freeway, 60 freeway, major streets, sub transmission lines, distribution lines and BNSF Railway — one of the busiest train crossings in the country — all to upgrade the transmission lines that support thousands of customers from Bell Gardens to Monterey Park. The complex topography added hurdles each step of the way.
“The most challenging part was the last section we completed,” Varela said. “The rail crossings and freeways shut us down at times or made us pivot our plans.”
The California Department of Transportaion would not let SCE close the freeways for the duration of the work. Instead they allowed for a seven-minute traffic stop where crews installed netting across the 5 and the 60. This was set up as an extra safety precaution for those passing below as the team worked above.
Even with these obstacles, they were able to finish ahead of schedule.
With this new installation done, SCE can deliver more electricity reliably and affordably using existing infrastructure while continuing to plan for new transmission lines and upgrades.
“In my 28 years with SCE, this is the largest, most challenging job I’ve done,” added Varela. “This is the future, so I’m glad we got to learn how it works, finished safely and now we can help other crews install this line and create a more resilient grid.”