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TransActions - September 2000 (Vol
400)
The overhead and underground electrical plant is the largest single investment made by an electrical distribution utility. To insure the investment and reduce liabilities, the distribution lines must be designed correctly and according to applicable codes and specifications. This responsibility usually falls to the system engineer or staking technician. To effectively perform his or her duties, this individual must be trained in basic mechanical design and have a fundamental understanding of mathematics and science. “Staking”. A Complete Engineering Evaluation. Utilities refer to the procedure of designing electrical distribution structures and underground facilities as “staking.” But designing an overhead or underground line requires more skill than simply driving wooden stakes into the ground to mark the locations of poles or padmount transformers. Staking is a complete engineering evaluation of the individual components of the structure and how they will be affected by the surrounding environment. The line designer’s goals are safety, reliability, and efficiency. Facilities designed and built to meet these goals will preserve the utility’s investment and provide excellent service to its customers.
Every Block Counts! Structure design is a science that can be viewed as a set of building blocks. Each block is a particular component of the structure. Typical building blocks for an overhead line include conductors, poles, assemblies, and transformers. All of the blocks must be assembled in a manner to produce one final structure, which will be safe, reliable and efficient. If any one block fails to meet the three goals, the total structure will be deficient. A novice designer may specify the proper size pole and aerial assembly but err in selecting a guy and anchor that will adequately support the strain produced by the conductors. A professional designer realizes that an efficient distribution line must be designed for a set of specified adverse conditions, not a tranquil spring day. These building blocks must also be assembled in a manner that meets the current edition of applicable codes, specifications, and industry standards. This is very important should an accident occur and litigation follow. Broaden the Design Spectrum with Focused Training. Line designers or “staking technicians” are usually trained by working as an apprentice to an older more experienced individual. This is essential training, but it can limit the apprentice designer’s skills to the experience and expertise of the mentor. Universities refer to this phenomenon as academic inbreeding. The utility plant takes on a signature of one individual whose design is passed on from employee to employee. Efficient design requires the fusion of new technology, materials, and design codes into the intellect of the staking technician. In most cases, on-the-job training alone fails to do this. Progressive utility managers are using seminars conducted by experienced professionals to enhance the skills of their employees. This focused training provides the student with information on new specifications, the current National Electrical Safety Code, and proven design techniques. The final product is a staking technician who has been exposed to the entire science of distribution line design rather than the perceptions of one mentor. A quality seminar should not deal with generalities but focus on specific parameters. Design information and written materials should be provided that can be taken home to the utility and put into use immediately. The information should be presented so that each student can gain a basic understanding of distribution line design regardless of his or her position on the learning curve. Overhead Distribution Line Design. An overhead line design seminar should teach the student how to layout and correctly specify poles and assemblies for a wood pole single-phase or three-phase distribution line. Subject matter should include:
For underground design, students should learn how to layout and correctly specify cable, conduit, elbows, risers, arresters, transformers and switchgear for subdivisions, shopping centers, and industrial sites. The subject matter should include:
If enhancing the skills of your design or construction personnel is of interest to you, we hope this article will help. The author is Richard Lovelace, Director of Field Services for Hi-Line Engineering, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of GDS. Hi-Line Engineering will conduct overhead and underground line design seminars this fall and winter in Orlando, Nashville, and Denver. For more information, call Hi-Line Engineering at (334) 887-3297 or e-mail: info@gdsassociates.com. WATER PRICING. ITS TIME TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. Just a few decades ago, there was plenty of fresh water on planet Earth. No one thought twice about how it was used. Streams and rivers and lakes were pristine. You could get down on your knees and drink from them. Along came a population explosion (6 billion today. . .9.5 billion by 2050) that has increased the demand for water many-fold. The nearly uncontrolled pace of industrial growth and commercial development has added to the pressure. . .polluting water, causing acid rain, encroaching even more of the available supply. And therein lies the rub. What we’ve got is all we’ll get. Water is a fixed commodity. The same volume that existed 100 years ago is what exists today. Yet water pricing by utilities is antiquated. It is time for a change. A more pragmatic, market-sensitive pricing concept is needed that reflects the scarcity of fresh water and the increasing cost of production. Costs based on cause and effect will focus attention on the efficient use of water and enable utilities managers to generate adequate revenues to operate, maintain, and expand their facilities to meet the increasing, insatiable demands. It’s Been a Slow Process. The application of comprehensive rate designs for water and wastewater services has, for the most part, moved across rate groups like so much molasses when compared to electric and natural gas utilities. With 80-85% of all US service providers being of municipal or water district structure, the prevailing mindset is that water and wastewater services should be provided at the absolute minimum cost to cover existing operations, maintenance and debt service expenses. In many of these instances, state or local utility commissions regulate the rates. Even without regulatory oversight, the rates are set to cover operating and indebtedness, but do not allow for retained funds to support infrastructure renewals and replacements or for expansion. The precedents have been in place for so long that even today rates only reflect costs associated with the existing infrastructure. Financial Pressures Are Acute. Today, financial pressures on rates go far beyond traditional responsibilities of debt and operating costs coverage. Water utilities face unprecedented expansion requirements to meet accelerating levels of both system average demand and peak demand. The ever tightening dictates of the Safe Drinking Water Act, as well as many other compliance issues (copper/arsenic rule, TMDL = Total Maximum Daily Load) and source water protection are increasing the pressure on utilities financial resources. To complicate things even further, many existing infrastructures are deteriorating. And, finally, many regions of the country have had and continue to have extended droughts. The competition for the scarce supply is intense. Traditional water and wastewater pricing mechanisms do not take these issues into account. They do not effectively assign cost responsibility based on the overall effect of the ratepayer to the system. It is easy to understand then why utility managers ask . . . “How am I going to fix the problem?” The only answer is . . .create a new paradigm in rate design. The old structure is inefficient, ineffective, and out-dated! A Provocative Idea. It may be time for water and wastewater rate design to evolve into a system of schedules applicable to customers in much the same way as electric rate schedules. Now a suggestion like that could cause a lot of gnashing of teeth, pencils breaking, and four letter words. But the truth remains. . .a whole new approach for water rate design is needed. Today! Across the country we see small to medium sized municipal utilities being privatized while large utility systems outsource their operating and maintenance to private firms because of revenue shortfalls and massive rate increases due to ineffective rate designs. Privatization has become the only recourse for many utilities, yet a long term, programmatic approach to rate design could replace that recourse and eliminate the need for privatization. So how would it work? Different circumstances will call for customizing any new rate design paradigm, but reverting to traditional thinking will get you nowhere! New rate designs must not be forced into the accepted “box.” Fresh ideas must be considered that are market-oriented. Pricing initiatives that should be explored might begin with ideas like the following:
For more information, e-mail us: info@gdsassociates.com.
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