Case Study
Using PLS-CADD™ modeling to prioritise network maintenance
The Client
Essential Energy is a NSW Government-owned corporation, with responsibility for building, operating and maintaining one of Australia’s largest electricity networks, delivering essential network services to more than 800,000 homes and businesses across 95 per cent of NSW and parts of southern Queensland.
Summary
State-owned electrical infrastructure company Essential Energy hold responsibility for building, operating and maintaining one of Australia’s largest electricity networks. A previous LiDAR survey project had highlighted potential clearance issues affecting a number of low crossings on the network.
However in order to determine whether genuine issues were present, a more in-depth analysis was required; one using precise CAD models to assess the exact clearance, allowing Essential Energy’s engineering team to remediate the crossing if necessary.
NM Group were commissioned to review the existing LiDAR data, and to deliver engineering grade asset models in order to determine which spans required remediation.
Testimonial
“We were very pleased to take on this detailed engineering project and model the spans to create a CAD record of over 4000 locations. PLS-CADD™ provided the tools to deliver a much more detailed check of the clearances and identify which locations needed remediation, helping Essential Energy’s engineering design team to focus resources where they were needed.”
About the project
Modelling 4,200 low clearance locations across the network, at variety of voltages, represented a substantial assignment, particularly as NM Group were using data sets from a number of previous LiDAR surveys. As a result a principle challenge lay in first sorting and standardising the data in order to deliver a consistent end product.
In order to accurately utilise the geospatial data, the project demanded significant electrical engineering knowledge and geospatial skill. Fortunately, the project was led by NM Group’s Director of Engineering, Paul Richardson, a chartered civil engineer (B Eng hons, CEng, MICE), with more than 20 years’ experience of electrical engineering, and one of the industry’s foremost specialists on using PLS-CADD™ for powerline design.
Technology focus
Although collected previously, Aerial LiDAR data was used to map the positon of the wires and structures in order to undertake the analysis. The LiDAR data was initially utilised to deliver basic point to point measurements in order to identify potential vegetation clearance infringements.
PLS-CADD™ modelling provided the onward analysis that determined, to a much higher degree of accuracy, which potential infringements needed remediation. Through the CAD analysis NM Group’s engineers sagged the conductor using the ambient temperature taken at time of survey, as well as line tension. This process ensured the most urgent defects could be prioritised for a remediation design.
NM Group’s team of experts were able to produce the critical models of the data enabling Essential Energy to efficiently prioritise their onward design workload. The entire project was completed within four months.
Project Summary
• NM Group successfully delivered CAD models for 4200 spans of power lines successfully within a four month schedule.
• Essential Energy engineers were able to focus on designing optimised repairs, knowing that they were prioritising the most critical issues.