Overview & Events
This focus of this project is to give utility personnel an understanding of why their assets degrade and the timeline associated with each component. Understanding the efficacy of each life extension method allows the maintenance personnel to apply the appropriate mitigation methods and engineers to determine the service life in various environments. This project intends to provide an understanding of corrosion occurring on structures and foundations through the following:
Corrosion Management Reference Book: Guidance on corrosion management is needed for all areas of power delivery. This reference book will contain asset management information for inspection, assessment, mitigation, and remediation for all departments within a utility. The table of contents has been outlined, and the first four sections are specific to the fundamentals of corrosion and overhead transmission line assets. Future sections will be developed specific to support underground transmission, substations, and distribution.
Corrosion Due to AC and DC Stray and Circulating Currents: It is well documented that shared rights-of-way create issues with dc stray currents due to the close proximity of pipelines to electric transmission line structures. The effects and severity of ac corrosion coupled with dc stray currents are not well understood. This task explores the methods to screen and quantify the effects as well as the mitigation options for these corrosion-related issues. Research in 2022 will focus upon modeling induced voltages and resulting stray circulating currents. This is anticipated to augment the existing metrics for the GIS models that have been developed and being validated.
Fleet Management of Overhead Transmission Line Structures and Foundations: The key to a good fleet management program is having sufficient and accurate information for the life-cycle decisions. This task evaluates the factors that cause degradation and aligns the cause with the appropriate corrective action. Environmental models and maps are being developed by harvesting soils at utility service territories and cross-referenced to the USDA soil series. This allows a corrosion rate for steel, zinc, and copper to be understood and applied to engineering design and O&M operations at each structure location within a service territory. Research in 2022 will focus to bring soil chemistry, texture and corrosion rates into a general model for the USGS soil series. This will enable asset managers to utilize this model by referencing the EPRI GIS enabled soil library.
New and Emerging Coating Systems for Atmospheric, Sub-grade and Marine Service: Each year EPRI evaluates new and emerging coating systems for addition to the coating library. Most coatings are championed by utilities that have an interest in expanding their standards but often the manufacturers will request a third-party evaluation understanding that the tests are unbiased and based upon performance metrics. Many of these coating systems are designed for application in a manufacturing facility but many are also designed for repairs in the field. The end user of these coating systems may then select the appropriate coating based upon performance in the environmental factors found within their service territory.
Development of Overhead Transmission Field Guides: Field guides are an important method of providing guidance to field crews and early-career engineers for identifying and understanding the severity of damage in the field. Field guides have images of varying levels of degradation of components, with methods to evaluate or quantify the condition. The last aspect of this field guide is to align corrective actions with the level of degradation severity.
Research Value
The potential value of this research includes the following:
- Helps to develop fleet management practices for population assessment by screening geographic areas prone to severe corrosion rates
- May improve system reliability and safety for utility personnel and the public by proactively identifying “at risk” structures
- Evaluates new inspection methods to identify and assess degradation of structures and foundations
- Demonstrates new and emerging mitigation and remediation technologies by evaluating accuracy, risk, efficacy, and cost
- Can improve designs through better materials compatibility with the environment, and can eliminate specific corrosion types
- Provides a new tool to quantify soil corrosivity levels for grillage, foundations, anchors, and poles
Engagement Opportunities
| Meeting | Scheduled Date |
Location |
Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inspection and Assessment Task Force | February 19-22 (In-person), February 26-29 (Virtual) | Charlotte, NC | Meeting Materials |
| Inspection and Assessment Workshop | April 29 - May 1, 2024 | Lenox, MA | Meeting Materials |
| EPRI R&D Project Update Webcast: P35.002 Conductor & Hardware Corrosion Management, P35.003 Structure & Subgrade Corrosion Management | May 1: 2:00pm - 3:00pm ET | Webcast | |
| Overhead Transmission 2024 ARP Rollout #1 | June 12: 11:00am - 12:30pm ET | Webcast | Add to calendar |
| EPRI - Fleet Management Workshop | June 18 - 19, 2024 | Charlotte, NC | Register Here |
| Overhead Transmission 2024 ARP Rollout #2 | July 16 : 11:00am - 12:30am ET | Webcast | Add to calendar |
| Inspection and Assessment Task Force | August 19-22 (In-person) / August 26-29 (Virtual) | Webcast | Register here |