Case Study: Utility Defers 25k Pole Replacements
Introduction
A US utility faced a challenge in fulfilling its regulatory commitment to identify and resolve conductor clashing issues across high wildfire-risk areas. Originally projected to take 36 months, the utility completed the project in just 4 months after implementing Neara’s platform.
Neara helped the utility to expedite risk identification work 10x faster compared to traditional methods. This rapid assessment not only facilitated compliance with regulatory obligations but also helped to address network vulnerabilities.
The Challenge
The utility had made a regulatory commitment to identify and remediate any poles at high risk of failure across their network. They had to prove which poles were in especially bad shape to justify the investment decision, but they only had qualitative field reports and their equipment age-based methodology to explain the logic behind which poles needed replacement.
Initially, they estimated that 25-30k poles needed to be retired and entirely replaced. The cost had become a point of contention with their regulator, and the asset management team needed to both de-risk problem poles and also right-size and justify the replacement cost.
The Solution
Using Neara’s platform, the utility proved that a large portion of the condemned poles were still structurally stable and suitable to remain in service for a defined period. The number of condemned poles was significantly reduced to 4k poles, saving millions of dollars without compromising safety and network integrity.
The utility used Neara’s predictive modeling software to perform tip-loading analysis across every pole in the network, including Finite Element Analysis and various severe weather simulations. The analysis produced evidence that the utility shared with their regulator to prove it was safe to leave much of the initially condemned poles in service. The utility has now entirely digitized its pole tip-loading analysis using Neara’s technology to continually run fast cost-benefit analyses across all risk and asset management programs.
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