How BPA Cut Utility Pole Replacement Timelines by Months
Image courtesy of Justin under Attribution 2.0 Generic License, resized to 700 x 391 pixels.
The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has slashed its utility pole replacement timelines for certain transmission poles from years to months. The so-called “Expedited Priority Pole Program” was launched about 18 months ago, and it’s already paying huge dividends.
Reducing Utility Pole Replacement Timelines
Since the program’s launch in early 2023, it has been used to oversee the replacement of 131 wood “structures” (262 poles in total), with another 350 structures in the queue. According to the BPA, prior to the program launch, replacing this many poles would have taken more than twice as long, from 36-48 months, instead of 18 months.
In order to shave off this much time, the program identified structures that do not require an engineering design or an environmental review. Thus, the poles that meet the criteria have essentially been pre-approved for their replacement, allowing them to be deployed quickly. Previously, every pole was treated equally, and always had to be reviewed to determine the need for engineering and/or environmental studies.
In addition to its efforts to reduce pole replacement timelines, the BPA has made other process improvements as well. For example, the company began utilizing a new fire-retardant wrap to ensure the poles are better protected from the elements. It also improved its supply chain timelines for procuring copper transmission wire by eliminating its long-standing requirement that they get stamped with “BPA.” This stamping process was a common industry practice to reduce substation thefts, but nowadays more modern and efficient approaches are available. By eliminating this stamping requirement, order lead times dropped from 8 months to just several weeks!
I really like what the BPA is doing. Anything that makes operational processes more efficient and effective has a positive ripple effect on reliability, resiliency, and emergency preparedness success. The improvements that have reduced the BPA’s utility pole replacement timelines are particularly useful in this regard, and I’m sure this has had a positive impact on its post-storm restoration and recovery efforts.
