Composite Technology Corp. (CTC; Irvine, California, U.S.) has reached an agreement with the city of Kingman, Kansas, U.S., to construct a 21-mile (34-km) power transmission line using its CTC proprietary aluminum conductor composite core (ACCC) technology.

Under the terms of the agreement, valued at up to US$2.7 million, CTC and Kingman, in coordination with Aquila Inc. (Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.), will engineer the project, construct and install required poles and cable, and CTC will provide its proprietary cable and structural products to meet the requirements of the project.

In addition to 21 circuit miles of its second cable product design, the Hawk-sized (611 kcmil) ACCC transmission cable, CTC expects to provide approximately 600 CTC proprietary composite electrical poles, which are lighter and stronger than conventional poles. These poles are nonconductive, virtually maintenance free, and require less labor and equipment to erect than conventional wooden, steel or concrete poles.

The project is expected to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2004. When completed, the resulting transmission line will deliver approximately 8 MW of electricity to Kingman on an ongoing basis, with 1 MW typically providing power for approximately 1000 homes.

CTC's new high-temperature, low-sag cable is a simple, cost-effective and rapidly deployable technology that can deliver up to twice as much power compared to conventional transmission cables of identical size. Moreover, it possesses additional performance characteristics that represent an immediate potential solution for overloaded electrical grid lines.

“We are pleased to be the first municipality to utilize Composite Technology's visionary technologies, which have national and global applications. We are confident that this unique technology will provide many new benefits and opportunities for our growing community. This project reflects the forward-thinking character of our city, its leaders and its citizens, and is an exciting step for Kingman,” said Ira Hart, city utility superintendent.

Carl Huslig, Aquila's manager of Transmission Services, said, “This is an exceptional opportunity to evaluate this unique, new transmission technology under real-life conditions. It appears to be a product capable of vastly improving power-transmission grids and service, worldwide. We look forward to working with CTC on future Aquila projects following the implementation and evaluation of the Kingman enterprise.”
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