3M™ Aluminum Conductor Composite Reinforced Customer Installations - Changing Clearance Requirements

Grays Harbor PUD used 3M ACCR to avoid tower construction in an environmentally sensitive area on the banks of the Chehalis River. The utility needed to increase clearances to enable them to raise the fiber optic line over the river to meet Army Corps of Engineers’ requirements. By using the conductor, they were able to meet those requirements, increase capacity and upgrade 3 circuits on the same crossing without enlarging towers. This allowed them to avoid permitting and other potential delays by using existing rights-of-way and towers.

Allegheny Power, a division of Allegheny Energy Inc., installed 3M ACCR to upgrade a 138 kV line linking the Bedington and Nipetown substations along Interstate-81 in West Virginia. The 1.7-mile upgrade boosted transmission capacity on a line some 50 miles northwest of Washington, D.C. The 138 kV line shares structures with three other lines for most of its length, including two under-built 12 kV lines, has a flow of 2,200 amps and is expected to peak at a temperature of 200°C. The line is built on self supporting steel poles with drilled pier concrete foundations.