Latest Overhead T&D Articles

T&D Asset Operators Look to Critical Energy Storage

Critical energy storage ensures uptime with UPS systems, battery backup, and microgrids, stabilizing renewables and grid resilience through frequency regulation, peak shaving, and long-duration solutions for hospitals, data centers, and industrial facilities. Critical Energy Storage Fundamentals Upgrading and deferring existing wires and substations may be the most common application of battery storage utilized for transmission and distribution. However, batteries also provide a range of solutions designed to maximize the lifetime of T&D infrastructure. Also referred to as T&D asset optimization, these energy storage systems (ESSs) are designed to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of existing T&D assets to provide…

Grounding Electrode

A grounding electrode is the physical connection between an electrical system and the earth. It stabilizes system voltage, supports fault-current dissipation, and forms the foundation of every compliant grounding system. Grounding Electrodes in Electrical Installations In every electrical system, there is a point where theory ends and physical reality begins. That point is the grounding electrode. Long before conductors are sized or bonding paths are verified within the broader framework of electrical grounding, the system must establish a relationship with the earth itself. The grounding electrode provides that relationship. It does not operate as a protective device, nor does…

Distribution Automation for Feeder Fault Isolation and Grid Reliability

Distribution automation allows utilities to detect feeder faults, isolate the damaged section, and restore service through automated switching and FLISR control logic. Faster fault isolation shortens outage duration and improves feeder reliability across modern distribution systems. Distribution automation determines how quickly a distribution feeder can recover from faults. When switching decisions rely on manual inspection and operator judgment alone, outages propagate across larger sections of the network and restoration takes longer. Automated sensing and switching reduce that exposure by isolating the faulted section while preserving service to unaffected customers. Utilities deploy distribution automation to reduce outage duration, improve feeder reliability…

Costly Interconnection Delays

Costly interconnection delays stall grid connection for solar, wind, and storage, driven by interconnection queue backlogs, transmission constraints, lengthy permitting, and network upgrade studies, inflating project CAPEX, financing risk, and PPA timelines. Costly Interconnection Delays and Their Impact on Workplace Safety Policy debates on solar incentives and valuation make headlines across the nation, but less attention is paid to the nuts and bolts of solar installation: the interconnection process.But the struggle there is very real. Take Hawaii, where the high volume of solar applications and the slow interconnection process slowed distributed solar installations two years ago. Eventually, the process…

Overhead T&D, Direct Current Technology

Direct current technology delivers efficient DC power distribution via rectifiers, converters, and power electronics, enabling microgrids, energy storage, HVDC links, photovoltaics, and electric vehicle charging with reduced losses and improved reliability. Direct Current Technology Fundamentals Direct current (DC) is the preferred technology for moving large amounts of power across long distances. DC results in higher overall efficiency and reliability than an equivalently sized alternating current (AC) system moving the same amount of power. The Advantages of DC More efficient: Over long distances, DC transmission can move more power with less electrical losses than an equivalent AC transmission line. For…

High Voltage AC Transmission Lines

Ac transmission lines deliver alternating current across the power grid using high voltage, overhead conductors, and insulators, controlling reactive power, impedance, and corona effects to minimize losses, improve efficiency, and ensure reliable long-distance electricity transmission. Understanding the Role of AC Transmission Lines in Power Systems Three-phase electric power systems are used for high and extra-high voltage AC transmission lines (50kV and above). The pylons must therefore be designed to carry three (or multiples of three) conductors. The towers are usually steel lattices or trusses (wooden structures are used in Germany in exceptional cases) and the insulators are generally glass…

Distributed Power Management for DER Control

Distributed power management coordinates DERs, storage, controllable load, feeder constraints, and microgrid response so operators can balance power flow, reliability, voltage support, and restoration without fragmented control decisions. Distributed power management is the control discipline that enables smaller electrical assets to respond as part of a single operating strategy rather than as separate resources pursuing separate objectives. The issue is not simply that power is now generated, stored, and controlled in more places. The issue is who sets the response priority when storage charging, load curtailment, export limits, and feeder constraints interact simultaneously. That matters because distributed assets do not…