New Transmission Towers Coming Soon from Duquesne Light Company
Duquesne Light Company (DLC) is getting ready to launch a large-scale project to replace over 100 old transmission towers over the next 5-6 years. This is part of the company’s strategy to boost reliability and increase capacity, which in turn should reduce outage frequency.
Details of the Initiative to Replace Old Transmission Towers
The so-called “BI-Crescent Transmission Project” is focused on the replacement of transmission towers that are 100 years old or more along a roughly 15-mile stretch between the company’s Brunot Island and Crescent Township substations around Pittsburgh, PA.
The new towers will be constructed out of steel monopoles and will be approximately 60% higher than the old towers (155 feet high vs. 93 feet high). Monopoles have several benefits versus other pole types, including a smaller footprint, lower O&M expenses, and stacked circuits that increase the distance between the infrastructure components and nearby trees/vegetation.
The Dec. 2021 launch is expected to wrap up sometime in 2027 (the effort does not seem like it will happen year-round, instead most of the construction will occur in the winter months).
Although there will be some customer impact, it should be minimal. For example, while planned outages may be required from time to time during construction, impacted customers will receive plenty of advance warning, and the outages themselves are not expected to last longer than 2 hours. The other potential impact could be increased traffic and lane closures surrounding the construction areas, but I have faith that Duquesne will manage these situations in a manner that minimizes the overall impact.
The bottom line is that any infrastructure built over a century ago inevitably needs to be replaced, and I applaud DLC for its commitment in this regard. Replacing transmission towers is a bit of a thankless job, but one that I sincerely believe the company’s customers will benefit tremendously from now and in the future.
