To ensure continued reliability for customers and plan for future needs, Lowell Light and Power turned to ITC with a unique request: perform a proactive maintenance inspection of its five-and-a-half miles of 138,000 volt (138 kV) wood pole structures. “We started talking to ITC about the need to establish a firm, empirical condition of the line, and everyone agreed that the partnership with ITC to accomplish this just made sense,” says West.
ITC strives to provide excellent customer service and out-of-the-box thinking to meet our customers’ needs. The ITC Stakeholder Relations team took Lowell’s request back to the company’s asset maintenance lead, who oversees the maintenance of 22,000 wood pole structures throughout ITC’s Michigan systems. As part of a unique maintenance agreement with Lowell Light and Power, ITC was able to develop a program to respond quickly to their request.
ITC performed a visual inspection of the line, and utilized IML Resistograph technology, drones and infrared cameras to get a complete picture of the overall integrity of the 90 structures that comprise the line. Inspectors looked for evidence of chipped or flashed insulators, grounding issues, thermal anomalies and hardware issues, and ultimately found no significant issues with Lowell’s infrastructure.
“The ITC team provided very detailed results from the inspection, and we now have a baseline to help us plan for the future,” says West. “ITC is a trusted partner, which gave us a high degree of confidence going into this project. The process was extremely smooth, and the data we received is and will continue to be extremely valuable.”
ITC customers range from traditional utilities and independent power producers to industrial customers and energy providers looking to connect to the power grid.