Enhancing the resilience and reliability of Central Louisiana’s electricity transmission system

Macquarie Asset Management is working with American utility company Cleco to strengthen its electrical transmission infrastructure to withstand hurricane-force winds and meet customers' growing power needs in Central Louisiana.

Opportunity

Central Louisiana has experienced grid congestion from growing customer needs and disruption from strong storms and hurricanes in the region.¹

Severe weather events have brought with them strong winds, heavy rainfall and flooding, which has led to the disruption of the region's infrastructure with falling trees, broken transmission lines and an impact on critical emergency services.

Since Cleco's transmission network also relies on stable connectivity to adjacent networks, the company needed to undertake measures to reinforce its transmission infrastructure and create redundancies to ensure continuous power supply. This would allow for easing of network congestion, support growing customer energy needs and withstand future storms in and around Cleco's service area.

Approach

Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) has been supporting Cleco with a phased upgrade of its infrastructure, introducing cutting-edge technology and significantly enhancing its equipment.

Following an initial phase of construction work to support the expansion of transmission capacity in South-Central Louisiana, Cleco entered a second and third phase of upgrades with the support of MAM. Improving the structural integrity and capacity of Cleco's network included the construction of 101 new steel transmission towers, some of which were upwards of 60 metres tall.²

This work has also included the installation of high-voltage transmission lines capable of supporting increased electrical load and engineered to withstand winds of up to 200 kilometres per hour. Additionally, the construction of four new substations promotes further interconnectivity to improve regional network coverage and provides Cleco with an alternate route to meet the growing power needs of the local communities.

By adopting a phased approach to these infrastructure upgrades, Cleco could efficiently manage its expenditures, allowing for the reallocation of resources towards additional grid improvements.

Outcome

Cleco has enhanced the resilience and reliability of its transmission system. Its network of interconnected transmission lines in the southern region of its service territory has been designed to endure hurricane-force winds while accommodating the increasing power demands of its customers.

Cleco's strengthened transmission grid has meant maintenance teams can more quickly address and repair localised issues such as downed wires, broken poles, and damaged cross-arms following severe weather events. This focus on repairs at the customer end is made possible by the reduced need for extensive repairs to upstream transmission lines and substations, which are now less likely to sustain damage due to the system's enhanced resilience. Moreover, the upgrades have expanded the system's transmission capacity, offering a safeguard against overloads that can lead to uncontrolled power outages.

Cleco's transmission planning group is committed to ongoing evaluation of grid conditions and the generation of long-term electrical demand forecasts, ensuring the safe and reliable delivery of power to its customers.

$US312m

101

200 kph

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