Loading ...The newly formed Utility and Communications Structures Working Group (UCS-WG), part of the American Composites Manufacturers Association’s Composites Growth Initiative (CGI), met with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).
“We were invited to meet with two subcommittees of the NRECA, the Electrical Transmission Specifications and the Overhead Distribution subcommittees, in order to brief them on the benefits of using composites technology within the utilities infrastructure,” said Brian Lacoursiere, head of the UCS-WG and director of Public Affairs at RS Technologies. “In an earlier meeting we had with the Department of Energy (DOE), we learned that all the U.S. governmental departments were mandated to find ways of hardening the grid (make them more resistant to natural disasters) and using more environmentally friendly products wherever possible. With this in mind, we wanted to educate the NRECA on the cost and environmental benefits of composite utility poles. We also wanted to try and get them thinking not only of the purchase price, but of the overall life cycle of the pole. We understand composite poles are slightly more expensive up front, but by the time you factor in installation and maintenance costs, composites are far more cost efficient.”
The NRECA represents the 800 co-ops across the U.S. and by working with NRECA on specs for transmission poles, effectively updating the standards for distribution and transmission poles, the UCS-WG feels orders for composite poles would increase and become steadier. “Instead of four or five, co-ops would order 20 to 30 on a consistent basis as they became more familiar with them,” says Lacoursiere.
After filtering questions about FRP composites, its performance in certain applications and where they were installed, the subcommittees agreed to let the UCS-WG revise and update specs currently used by the NRECA and its coops. “Support by the committee will be critical in developing a specification for FRP poles,” says John Busel, ACMA’s director of CGI. “We hoped to gain trust and credibility with this end-user organization and we were met very openly; they wanted to understand more about FRP composites and how they could be used.” The group aims to have a completed draft by the end of September that will make it easier for administrators in rural electric co-ops to apply for funds and authorization to use FRP poles. Once the draft is complete, the subcommittees will review the draft for approval.”
