The electricity transmission unit of MOESK Company (Moscow United Electric Grid Company) has installed the 3M ACCR overhead conductor to upgrade a line serving a densely populated southern district of Moscow to avoid the need for larger towers or an expanded right of way. The installation is the second application of 3M ACCR by MOESK in Moscow, and the eighth across the country to date by a Russian utility, with three more soon to be completed.

MOESK Company is Russia’s largest interregional distribution grid company, serving a 47,000-sq-km (18,147-sq-mi) area with a population of about 17 million.

The utility chose 3M ACCR to achieve up to 1,200 A of current on a 3.3-km (2.05-mi) 110-kV double-circuit overhead segment of its Cheremushki-Yughnaya line, serving the Nagatino-Sadovniki portion of Moscow’s Southern Administrative District. The alternative solution would have been to enlarge the towers to support a 220-kV or 330-kV upgrade, causing difficult logistical problems in the densely packed community. Among other impediments, the line crosses six-lane and eight-lane highways, as well as railroad tracks.

3M ACCR is a lightweight, low-sag, high-capacity conductor that can carry twice the current or more of conventional steel-core conductors of the same diameter, on existing towers, thereby helping utilities avoid a wide range of problems in environmentally sensitive areas and in crowded urban settings. Its low-sag characteristic also provides a solution for clearance issues.

Since its commercial introduction in 2005, the conductor has been employed across the United States and in Asia, Europe and South America, especially among utilities in the world’s major emerging economies: Brazil, China, India and Russia.

Tim Koenig, director of the 3M High Capacity Conductor Program, says 3M ACCR’s growing international use, “especially in those countries whose economies and need for electrical power are most rapidly expanding, demonstrates the extent to which this new but proven conductor has become a versatile, reliable first-choice problem-solver.”

Koenig also notes that 3M ACCR is helping utilities accommodate new demands being placed on electricity grids without encountering costly and problematic construction, right-of-way expansion or permitting issues.