Heat waves are being felt in every corner of the plant from Iceland to Qatar. Grid Operator Alerts are becoming more frequent as demand for electricity increases during heatwaves, but blackouts and brownouts still occur as consumers try to stay cool in air conditioned spaces.
Unfortunately, as air temperatures increase – the efficiency of the electric power grid decreases. This is why several utilities have proactively selected the high-capacity, low-sag, energy-efficient ACCC® Conductor to strengthen their electric power systems.
Initially developed to mitigate thermal sag associated with conventional steel reinforced bare overhead conductors, the ACCC conductor’s lighter weight carbon fiber composite core also allows the incorporation of 28 percent more conductive aluminum in any size conductor without a weight or diameter penalty. While the ACCC Conductor’s low-sag properties prevent the conductor from sag-trip outages (or in some cases from starting wild fires!), the added aluminum content also improves overall grid efficiency.
In fact, while reducing line losses by 25 to 40 percent using ACCC Conductor reduces fuel consumption and associated emissions, line loss reductions also FREE-UP GENERATION ASSETS that are otherwise wasted supporting line losses. The ADDED GENERATION CAPACITY created by reducing line losses can serve as a backstop to power outages – thereby helping us stay cool during worsening heat waves. To date, more than 200 utilities have upgraded over 700 transmission lines in 50+ countries with ACCC Conductor. For more information, please check out www.ctcglobal.com and learn more.