3M™ Aluminum Conductor Composite Reinforced Customer Installations - Reliability

SVP, the municipal utility of the City of Santa Clara, is located in the heart of the Silicon Valley area, where reliability is paramount for serving high-tech industries. Equally important are using existing structures and minimizing the disruption to both residential and business neighborhoods. The installations also had to accommodate a 12 kV line running under the installation and a 115 kV line crossing above the installation in 2 locations, as well as multiple railroad and highway crossings. It also had to match the existing sag and tensions without putting additional stress on the existing towers while delivering a significant capacity increase.

To ensure adequate transmission capacity during summer peak demand hours, PRPA installed 954-T13 (490 mm²) 3M ACCR as a replacement conductor on a three-mile segment of a line that links Fort Collins and Loveland, extending southward along the Union Pacific railroad right-of-way. The upgrade was needed to meet N-1 reliability requirements, and 3M ACCR performed as required in heavy loads and emergency conditions during a 2008 tornado. The conductor allowed PRPA to use only the existing, relatively new towers and eliminated the need for permitting and other requirements which would have been necessary for new towers, while preserving the sightline and without impacting the nearby bike path and railroad.

PRPA generates electricity for its owner communities of Estes Park, Fort Collins, Longmont and Loveland, Colorado. Its facilities are located along the Front Range and northwestern Colorado in addition to near Medicine Bow, Wyoming.

Southern Company subsidiary, Alabama Power, installed 1033-T13 (525 mm²) 3M ACCR to replace a 10-mile (16-kilometer) line in northeastern Alabama. The line was upgraded to meet contingency requirements resulting from the addition of generation to serve summer peak loads. 3M ACCR was chosen for this project to avoid replacing approximately half the transmission structures and installing eight additional structures. This significantly reduced construction time, allowing the line to be taken out of service for this project without impacting grid reliability. Alabama Power Company supplies electricity to 1.3 million homes, businesses and industrial facilities.