The technology precisely measures conductor temperatures, enabling utilities to improve system reliability and capacity and enhance the security of transmission assets.
It also demonstrates compliance with applicable regulatory requirements and reduces mitigation costs associated with compliance by as much as $2bn over a period of three years.
URMC said that the present utility industry practice is dependent upon calculating conductor temperature through a steady-state heat balance equation, which can generate significant margins of error due primarily to weather variables.
In late 2010, the North American Electric Reliability Corp issued a regulatory alert requiring all transmission operators to assess within the next three years, the precise physical characteristics of their high voltage transmission lines relative to design specifications.
