New program shaves time spent replacing wood transmission poles from years to months

arrowBack to Newsroom

New program shaves time spent replacing wood transmission poles from years to months

August 30, 2024

Program improves BPA's ability to update its infrastructure by removing barriers.

The 18-month-old program reduces the amount of time and technical resources needed to replace wood transmission poles that have been identified with a critical defect.

The Bonneville Power Administration recently launched a new program designed to reduce the amount of time and technical resources needed to replace transmission poles in a niche criteria. This new initiative significantly streamlines the process to replace pre-existing wood poles to minimize potential infrastructure failure and improve reliability of BPA's grid.

"The Expedited Priority Pole Program is a prime example of BPA creating practical solutions to provide better service to its ratepayers," says John Lahti, vice president of Transmission Field Services. "With the collaboration of multiple BPA teams, we are now able to reduce the amount of time to replace certain poles from years to months. That's a big win for the region."

BPA owns and operates more than 15,000 circuit miles of transmission, ranging from 1,100 kilovolts down to 13.8 KV. Transmission lines that use wood poles cover approximately 4,800 miles or about one-third of BPA's total circuit miles of transmission lines.

As a transmission owner with more than 400 customers, BPA is responsible for routinely identifying and replacing comprised wood pole structures that are a risk to the larger grid and our ability to serve power to local utilities. Every year, BPA line crews and Aircraft Services patrol our lines as part of this task. Additionally, an in-depth inspection is performed on approximately 10% of the wood poles within our transmission system in compliance with North American Electric Reliability Corporation, Western Electricity Coordinating Council and BPA work standards and guides.

The planned lifecycle of one of these poles, which is comprised of Douglas fir or cedar, ranges between 40 to 80 years, depending on number of factors such as insect infestation, woodpeckers, extreme weather or even fire damage. Compromised structures are a risk to human safety and system reliability.

Once a pole is identified as needing replacement by line crews, a diverse brigade of BPA staff begin their work on the project. Transmission engineers design the replacement, procurement specialists order materials, environmental protection specialists perform environmental and culture assessments, and then crews install the new pole. While each team performs a critical task to ensure the replacement pole is installed safely, accurately and compliantly, the total time to complete a routine pole replacement project can take three to four years.

In late 2022, a core group of BPA stakeholders from Transmission Services and Environment, Fish and Wildlife began to consider how the agency could reduce the amount of time it would take to replace wood pole structures while following standards and meeting requirements.

"During our many discussions, we uncovered certain wood pole structures might be eligible to be replaced quicker than other poles provided they met a predetermined criteria by each approving stakeholder team," says Marty Flansburg, civil engineer in Transmission Program Management. "Our teams then collaborated on a set of requirements that a potential structure would need to meet. Essentially, we looked for the low-hanging fruit, so our limited resources could focus on more complex projects."

By identifying structures that require little to no engineering design or environmental review, which can significantly add more time to the project, the team could expedite a group of poles for quick replacement.

The effectiveness of this program became evident last month after Olympia and Chehalis Transmission Line Maintenance crews completed a change out of 15 structures, totaling 30 poles, on the Port Angeles-Sappho transmission line.

"Our teams were able to perform this work safely while keeping the line energized and not disturbing power to a community of 6,500 people, who were connected to this line," said Cody Smith, lineman foreman III on Olympia TLM. The two teams completed the installation in nine days.

In addition to replacing the structures, Smith's team installed a new fire-retardant wrap designed to add fire protection to the new structures. This protection measure wraps around the bottom of the wood poles, and when exposed to extreme heat, provides excellent flame resistance. They can also withstand years of outdoor weathering.

Since its implementation 18 months ago, the program has overseen the replacement of 131 wood pole structure (262 poles), with another 350 structures approved and awaiting outages for construction. Under traditional timetables, the process to design, improve and install these same wood pole structures would have taken between three to four years. For BPA's customers, the accelerated improvement of transmission infrastructure provides them with enhanced service reliability and efficiency.

Moreover, the Expedited Priority Pole Program aligns with BPA's 2024-2028 strategic plan, which emphasizes improving customer service and operational efficiency, by redirecting resources from simpler projects to more complex ones, allowing BPA to achieve its objectives more efficiently.

"This program saves our agency resources and helps identify infrastructure that can be prioritized and resolved in a short amount of time," says Jennifer Bailey, Field Strategy and Operational Excellence Manager. "By modernizing our business systems and processes, BPA will continue to make good on its strategic plan commitments."

Looking ahead, the future of the entire Pole Replacement Program is promising. BPA is continually refining and improving the Expedited Priority program as lessons are learned. The long-term goal is that these efficiencies can expand to improve the process in the overall program to reduce barriers and minimize red tape, further streamlining the process for all wood pole replacements.

Tags

social_facebook Share social_twitter Tweet email Email print Print