January 14, 2014

A seminar was organised by the conductor division of IEEMA during ELECRAMA to showcase the next-generation conductor technology to the users. Chairman of IEEMA Conductor Division, Mr. Chaitanya Desai stated that electricity has been traditionally delivered using bare overhead conductors such as ACSR and AAAC for over a hundred years. However, the industry today is in a flux of changes resulting in shifting to the next generation of conductor technology, which is high performance conductor (HPC).

For optimising power transfer per unit right of way (ROW), the ampacity of conductors used in transmission lines has to be raised by technological development. This calls for new-generation conductors that can deliver large quantum of power without any change in the existing tower/ foundation designs or minor modifications therein. The solution, therefore, lies in the usage of HPCs that include low-loss and high-temperature-low-sag capabilities.

The seminar gave an insight to the participants into the types of HPC, their benefits, stringing techniques, types of hardware used, etc. The key leaders of power industry including Mr. S. K. Negi, Managing Director, GETCO; Mr. Mataprasad, FNAE; and other eminent speakers from PGCIL, Torrent, Deloitte and Sterlite, etc., presented different aspects of this topic and shared case studies and experiences. Overall, the conference objective to create awareness and educate about HPC was successfully achieved, which saw a total of 100-plus participants from various utilities across India in very interactive sessions throughout the day.