A POWER-DELIVERY VICE PRESIDENT FOR A BIG NORTHEAST UTILITY GATHERED HIS STAFF together and announced, “We don't need senior engineers. If we need higher-level technical expertise, we will contract out for it.”

I hate to hear myopic, simplistic thinking like this. As engineers, it is impossible to argue with individuals who pronounce edicts as if they were facts.

In fact, the opposite is true. If we let our technical talent leave, we will most assuredly pay for our ignorance and our misconceptions. Even our industry has unscrupulous, opportunistic vendors who will swoop down to feed on the flesh of the unwary.

Instead, we need innovative engineers to work with our premium vendors to bring about creative solutions that will more than pay for the investment in time and resources.

The first engineer who comes to mind is Tom Callsen with Exelon in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Like most designing engineers, Callsen enjoys stirring things up, but he is well worth the fuss. I worked with Callsen earlier when he was on a really intriguing project figuring out the actual loads required from server farms being built in the Chicago area.

Earlier this year, Callsen tracked me down at a trade show, and we went to breakfast, where he shared his latest initiative: “DC in a Box.” Callsen was asked to come up with a less expensive 34-kV to 12-kV substation for suburban neighborhoods, but the compartmental substation he and his buddies came up with can be used in virtually any setting. Callsen worked with both Cooper Power Systems and Pauwels Transformers to come up with the equipment. Essentially, DC in a Box is a distribution center made up of a 9375-kVA compartmental transformer that has a solid dielectric vacuum recloser mounted in the low-voltage compartment. The controller of the recloser acts as both the SCADA point and as the RTU for alarm contacts. Separate single-phase regulators can be added if voltage regulation is required.

Callsen's system has exactly the same thermal ratings as a traditional transformer. By working hard with its vendor partners, Exelon was able to reduce the amount of oil in the ONAN-rated compartmental transformer to less than the 1320 gallons of oil that would require spill containment.

Exelon is finding that the compact design is better received by the public than the traditional fenced-in substations. When I last talked with Callsen, ComEd had a dozen new DC in a Box sites slated for 2007 and a handful already identified for installation in 2008.

One site that tells a neat story is in the Hampshire School District where a high school and elementary school are being built. Callsen told me, “We asked the school district to provide us with an easement on the corner of their property for a DC in a Box. They agreed and even offered to provide us with driveway access to the site from inside the school property. We are working out the final details, but we should end up with 2 MW of capacity to serve the school and another 8 MW to meet the need of subdivisions going up around them. The school district not only kept the site as we proposed, the plan provides a parcel big enough for a second installation as the region grows.”

Callsen doesn't have a lock on innovation. On the transmission side, I reconnected with my buddy Jerry Wong of Florida Power & Light (FPL; Miami, Florida, U.S). A transmission line designer, Wong started out as a structural engineer in the bridge and high-rise building industries. When Wong came over to FPL, he brought with him knowledge in working with pre-stressed concrete. When he arrived at FPL, the utility was using statically cast square concrete poles that were loaded close to their mechanical limits when wind loading was taken into account.

At the time, the square concrete poles had a compressive strength of 6000 lbs per square inch (psi) and a rating of 12,000 lbs. Today, working closely with vendors who use high-strength materials (12,000 psi concrete and 300,000 psi steel strands), FPL can obtain a spun-concrete pole that achieves an 86,000-lb rating. When taking the superior aerodynamic property of a round shape into consideration, the useable capacity of the spun-concrete poles is increased significantly.

States Wong, “I have worked so closely with all the steel and concrete pole vendors for so long now that we've become friends. It's almost like my second family. I remember one time when I was stuck on a design problem, and I called Doug Sherman [with Valmont-Newmark]. Sherman was on a camping trip with the Boy Scouts, and it was raining dogs and cats. We talked for an hour and a half and were able to get the design problems worked out. Sherman was in the middle of nowhere, late at night, talking on a cell phone stuck in a severe thunderstorm. I guess that is a good example to the young scouts about dedication.”

The first out-of-the-box innovative design Wong collaborated on is the prestressed “reverse-taper” concrete pole. The reverse-taper pole has a smaller diameter at the base than in the middle of the pole, which defies conventional wisdom.

“When we first came up with the idea, we were trying to find a way to reuse existing foundations for a 2-mile [3.2-km] long river crossing,” states Wong. “There were plenty of people who said, ‘It will never work,’ but we proved them wrong. I always joke that when I look in the mirror, I find my stomach is bigger than my feet, but I can still stand without falling down, so, we should be able to make a pole to work the same way.” This design let us reduce the weight of our poles by 33% and achieve significant saving on the project. I even got a $25 gift certificate because of it.”

FPL found so many uses for the reverse-taper pole that it has become a standard option for new line construction. And the company has discovered advantages of the design it hadn't anticipated. Like when it found that, when direct embedded, the reverse taper provides a wedging action that enables the utility to reduce the pole-setting depth.

HYBRID POLE

Jerry followed the reverse-taper pole design with what is called the “hybrid pole.” The area manager responsible for the rebuild of the Deland — Putnam line wanted to replace wooden poles in a swampy area with something that would last longer. Wong came up with a concrete base that would mitigate corrosion concerns. A steel-pole section is then fitted over the base to provide additional flexibility and a lighter weight. Again, the nontraditional design had many details that needed to be worked out, but it has become another valuable design option for FPL.

Wong's latest effort is called the “muscle pole.” The Americans with Disability Act requires utilities to maintain a 34.5-inch (876.3-mm)-wide sidewalk to accommodate wheelchairs. Because the typical sidewalk is 5 ft (1.5 m) wide, FPL needed a pole with a diameter of less than 26 inches (660 mm), which is 8 inches (203 mm) less than the diameter of poles typically used on FPL's system.

Because steel is strong in tension and concrete is strong in compression, Wong helped design a concrete-filled steel pole, using special shear connectors, that enables the vendor to reduce the diameter of the pole by 25% to 30%.

DESIGNING ENGINEERS ARE OUT THERE

Now that I am looking for “designing engineers,” I am finding them all over the place. But I'm also finding that too many utilities have let their senior talent slip away. I have this gnawing fear that some of our executives are becoming “me-too” utilities, hoping other utilities will perform the intellectual heavy lifting. Those utilities that follow this path do so at their peril. In an industry in rapid flux, playing follow the leader is a dangerous, dead-end game. If we are to determine what form our power-delivery system is to take, we must go on the offensive with our vendor partners and develop the innovative products that will enable us to keep the lights on at prices our customers can afford.

Editor's note: For more information, check out the strategic plan for Hydro-Québec Distribution at www.hydroquebec.com/publications/en/strategic_plan/2004-2008/pdf/5.pdf.