Uninterrupted electricity is the need of the hour. As an essential part of modern life and the modern economy, everything from household applications like lighting and refrigeration to larger ones like public transportation systems rely on electricity. Any disruption to electricity flow, like blackouts or outages, can therefore cause significant challenges not just in everyday lives but also in terms of industrial productivity. At the root of these disruptions is compromised power transmission, making transmission infrastructure development one of the most pressing concerns for governments and private organizations at present.
The power transmission lines and towers industry is the backbone for a cleaner, more resilient, and dependable electricity network, and is expected to exceed a $48 billion valuation by 2028, as per estimates from Global Market Insights Inc. With the industrial world growing more dependent on electricity for its operations, this anticipated development in power transmission infrastructure is reassuring for many. Transmission is also an essential tool in addressing the ongoing climate crisis, playing a key role in decarbonization across the power industry as well as facilitating the electrification of major industrial sectors.
As is the case with any industry, however, there are certain challenges that the power sector encounters that may obstruct energy supply. Fortunately, the increasing burden of these challenges has spurred governments and organizations alike into action, to develop advanced and robust power transmission towers, lines, and other infrastructure designed to ensure a seamless flow of electricity throughout the industrial ecosystem.
Retrofitting and Refurbishment
Electrical grids are perhaps more important today than ever before. However, most grids in existence have far surpassed their life expectancy and are thus facing challenges in accommodating the ever-increasing need for power. According to ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers), in the U.S., most of the transmission and network lines, which were constructed in the 1950s and 60s have gone beyond their 50-year life expectancy.
Besides their limitations in handling power loads, aging infrastructure also makes the grid vulnerable to various stress factors, ranging from cyberattacks to climate to simply unprecedented demand. One of the most recent and prominent examples of this is the catastrophic transmission damage caused by Hurricane Ida in August 2021, leaving the entire city of New Orleans without power for a substantial period.
To handle the many existing and emerging stress factors that may challenge the productivity of a grid, power transmission lines and towers in the 21st century need to be smarter and more flexible. This is especially relevant in the current times, given the undeniable shift in the energy mix which is focusing more on the adoption of sustainable and renewable sources of energy like wind or solar.
To tackle these issues, protect power transmission infrastructures against any supply disruptions due to climate-induced, physical, or cyber-attacks, and minimize impact during instances of outages, investment interest needs to rise, both from the public as well as private sectors. The combination of favorable policy choices, public-private sector efforts, and political will is the key to unlocking the true potential of the electrical grid.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law established by the Biden administration, specifically the DOE’s “Building a Better Grid” Initiative is a promising example of a great start to these efforts. Under the initiative, the administration is aiming for the development of new and upgraded power transmission lines and tower infrastructures to strengthen the grid network across the nation.
While efforts like these from the public sector are helpful, they alone are not enough to carry the burden of preserving the productivity of power transmission networks. Private sector investment is also playing an increasingly important role in advancing grid infrastructure development. Funding from private organizations is crucial not just to close the overall gap but also to promote modernization in the form of innovative power transmission lines and towers and resilience technologies.
This has come to the attention of organizations like SP Energy Networks, which announced a $5.23 million (£40 million) investment in August 2021, aimed at funding a network refurbishment project in East Lothian and the Borders in Scotland. The upgrade initiative, part of a broader $2.61 billion (£2 billion) investment plan, has been established not just to make the electricity supply more resilient, but also to future proof the transmission network across Southern and Central Scotland over the next 5 years, paving the way toward a greener, net-zero future.
Private investments in the line such as SP Energy Networks are ensuring that power transmission towers and lines remain stronger than ever in the years to come and are able to handle amplified demand for energy with the uptake of green technologies on the rise.
Renewable Integration
Reliable and economical electrification, already essential to how the world moves, consumes, and builds, has become even more indispensable as industries turn to long-term sustainability efforts. The electrical grid, as well as the burgeoning amount of data both dependent on and essential to managing that grid, have thus become one of the key areas of focus for many governments that are gearing up to tackle new challenges in the power sector.
With growing scrutiny around power generation, which is responsible for nearly 35% of worldwide emissions, the pressure on governments to adopt renewables has grown tremendously. Modern utilities have more challenges to encounter than simply growing demand; they are required to take measures to mitigate their carbon footprint while simultaneously working to adapt their transmission infrastructures to cleaner and sustainable energy. This is a significant pain point, given that the infrastructure needs of renewable energy sources like solar or wind are more complex mainly due to their fluctuating nature as compared to their fossil-based counterparts, which are stored before being converted into power.
One of the most prominent solutions supporting this shift in grid dynamics is the emergence of the smart grid concept. By adding a digital layer to existing grid infrastructure, utilities can monitor and mitigate issues in real-time. The integration of evolving technologies into transmission infrastructure has not only made grids more predictive and cognizant but has also helped to double the amount of renewable energy that can be integrated into the grid, as suggested by a Brattle Group study.
In this situation, a new era of investment has dawned for the power lines and tower industry, focused on the development and adoption of advanced batteries, analytics, sensors, and other electronic technologies designed to improve the flexibility, capacity, and strength of existing grids. This trend has caught the eye of leading utilities across the globe like New York Power Authority, Xcel Energy, and Dominion, which have started to integrate these technologies into their networks in a bid to move closer to their clean energy targets.
UK’s National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) expanded its use of SmartValve, a modular power flow control technology from Smart Wires. As a new generation in FACTS (flexible alternating current transmission systems) technology, the SmartValves solution was designed to allow system operators to manipulate power flows in the power transmission networks through real-time adjustment of transmission line reactance.
NGET’s objective behind deploying this solution was to make its existing network smarter and more productive, thereby eliminating the need for new infrastructure development. This move was crucial in times when circuits are handling unequal loads due to more renewables connecting to the network, and electrification of industrial operations changing the way power flows across the country.
The COVID-19 impact
The COVID-19 crisis caused a slowdown not just in new grid projects, but also unearthed unprecedented delays in procurement and created a shift in priorities towards responding to health emergencies. These slowdowns in the pipeline caused major challenges for utilities in terms of new grid connections and presented many uncertainties for the power sector in general.
Despite the seemingly bleak outlook, however, several electricity transmission line projects and grid connections have been initiated over the past year, as the industrial world moves gradually towards recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic’s implications. One of the catalysts to this recovery was targeted efforts by companies to put into effect safety measures that would allow them to continue the development of power transmission lines and towers without putting workers at risk of infection.
For instance, in January 2022, American Electric Power’s I&M (Indiana Michigan Power) announced its intention to make an $11 million investment in the Anderson Area Improvements Project, to upgrade the power transmission infrastructure serving customers across Madison County. Involving the rebuilding of a nearly four-mile, 138 kV transmission line and upgrading of a substation, the company also tried to minimize the risk of viral transmission during this project, by limiting in-person visits of contractors with property owners in accordance with social distancing mandates established by the CDC.
With the persisting evolution of both technology and society, the delivery of power to businesses, industries, and households is becoming increasingly complex, yet more crucial over the years. Utilities are focusing on investments in smart power transmission technologies to accommodate these evolving demands. Supported by efforts from the private sector as well as favorable and necessary policy changes, power transmission lines and tower infrastructure could be headed towards a revolution over the years ahead, paving the way for the more modern, robust, and resilient grid required to power the economy of the future.
Author: An avid reader since childhood, Saloni Walimbe is currently following her passion for content creation by penning down insightful articles relating to global industry trends, business news and market research. With an MBA-Marketing qualification under her belt, she has spent two years as a content writer in the advertising field, before making a switch to the market research domain. Aside from her professional work, she is an ardent animal lover and enjoys movies, music, and books in her spare time.
