Transmission reliability includes keeping today’s lines in service and delivering more power. Communities, businesses, data centers, and manufacturing facilities continue to increase electricity demand. For many utilities, the need for added capacity is clear, but finding space for it is more difficult.
When Space Becomes the Constraint
Establishing a new transmission right-of-way can involve route studies, easement acquisition, permitting, community engagement, surveying, land clearing, engineering, construction, and commissioning. The complete process can take 7 - 13 years while electricity demand continues to grow. An existing corridor may provide a faster path—if the transmission design can fit.
Hendrix® Aerial Cable Systems (ACS) use covered phase conductors held in a compact configuration by spacers mounted on a messenger wire. The covered conductors allow much closer phase spacing than a conventional bare-wire design. The resulting smaller aerial footprint can help utilities increase capacity without acquiring and clearing a wider corridor.
More Capacity in Less Space
Compared with a horizontal bare-wire transmission structure, ACS can reduce required right-of-way width by up to 70% and use shorter poles than a comparable vertical configuration. Depending on the application, this compact profile may allow a utility to add circuits, upgrade a line, or establish a transmission route where a conventional structure would not fit. ACS can also support multiple circuits on a single pole, further increasing corridor capacity.
A smaller footprint can reduce tree removal, habitat disturbance, and impacts on neighboring properties. Shorter poles and a narrower line profile may also reduce the visual presence of transmission infrastructure in growing communities. These advantages help utilities deliver more power while using land and aerial space efficiently.
A Faster Path to Needed Power
Using an existing right-of-way can reduce or eliminate additional land acquisition, easement negotiations, extensive clearing, and portions of the permitting process. Hendrix transmission projects within existing corridors can potentially move from planning through commissioning in two to three years—accelerating project timelines by up to 75%. Utilities can deliver needed capacity and begin realizing project revenue sooner while reducing the cost, uncertainty, and stakeholder complexity of developing a new corridor.
Hendrix ACS is engineered for transmission installations up to 138 kV, with spacers that support and separate the covered phase conductors and a messenger that provides structural support. Hendrix brings 75 years of Aerial Spacer Cable experience and the support of three U.S.-based manufacturing facilities. The Hendrix team supports utilities from site evaluation and system design through material supply, installation planning, field training, final inspection, and preventive maintenance—helping make existing corridors more productive and bringing needed capacity online sooner.
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