-SPONSORED CONTENT-
By Amokabel Australia
Following the Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission, the Victorian Government looked for innovative engineering companies that could develop new overhead conductor that would reduce the bushfire risk across the state.
Amokabel from Sweden and Bendigo-based Groundline Engineering applied for and won the grant to develop the new generation of covered conductor. The design brief from the Victorian government was extensive and covered key areas such as high temperature fluctuations, extreme UV resistance, resistance to salt spray and industrial contaminants, abrasion resistance, as well as the ability for the products to be easily installed and maintained in remote locations.
Amokabel and Groundline developed a compliant product using Amokabel’s 25 years’ experience in the development and manufacturing of covered conductors for demanding conditions. Amokabel’s products had previously been deployed in demanding environments such as the Artic Circle and the deserts of Oman.
The resulting New Generation Covered Conductor (NGCC) from Amokabel uses advances in materials technology to produce a covered conductor that is uniquely engineered for Australian conditions. NGCC is much lighter and stronger than other types of covered conductor that have previously been used in Australia (for example Covered Conductor Thick or CCT). The fact that it is lighter and stronger allows it to be retrofitted to most existing networks without the need for expensive interpoling or other infrastructure upgrades, which are often required when using other solutions such as CCT. The addition of a unique steel (ACS) covered conductor product enables the replacement of conductors where traditionally steel wire has been used, for example in a SWER (Single Wire Earth Return) application. The Amokabel ACS product allows much longer spans than have previously been possible with covered conductor.
In addition to the conductor itself, Amokabel supplies accessories that ensure that a complete covered system solution is achieved. This reduces the risk of fire starts by a staggering 98% and ensures that vegetation and our native wildlife are no longer the unwitting causes of devastating bushfires.
Following the successful development of the covered solution, in 2016 trials began in Victoria with one of the Victorian network operators. The trials targeted coastal areas that had previously been plagued by consistent outages due to conductor clashing. Since 2016, not a single fault has been reported on the section of line that was replaced with the Amokabel product. The products have now been installed at many other locations in Victoria.
With the resounding success of the trial, Amokabel decided to open a subsidiary in Australia and founded Amokabel Australia Pty Ltd in December 2020. As part of the commitment by Amokabel to the Australian networks, Amokabel acquired a cable manufacturing business in Sydney in 2022, with the long-term goal of manufacturing covered conductor in Australia.
Amokabel managing director in Australia Steve Rutland said, “Amokabel’s New Generation Covered Conductors are a uniquely Australian product that has enormous potential to reduce bushfire risk and increase the safety, reliability and resilience of our distribution networks here in Australia. Amokabel believes in being local and where many companies are moving manufacturing offshore, we are committed to providing better service to our customers by bringing manufacturing to Australia and creating jobs. Amokabel’s motto is ‘Cable for Life’ and so we are also committed to bringing products to Australia that not only save lives, but which are also designed and produced in an environmentally sustainable way. Our factory in Sweden is unique in that it currently produces its own renewable energy through a combination of wind, water and solar energy and our ambition is to be able to do the same thing in Australia.”
Given that this kind of covered conductor is relatively new in Australia, experience and knowledge among the distribution network operators is quite limited. In discussions with distribution companies and early experience of those who have installed it, Amokabel’s product has shown itself able to address many of the misperceptions DNO’s have of covered conductor.
Cost: Recent discussions with installation contractors in Victoria have confirmed that the installation time for the AAAC and ACSR CC products are the same as the bare wire equivalents and the ACS product requires slightly more installation time. While it is difficult to provide a definitive figure as to the cost difference to reconductor with CC compared to bare wire, Amokabel’s experience shows that the cost to reconductor with Amokabel’s CC is between fifteen and twenty percent more than reconductoring with bare wire. This additional cost is offset by the multiple benefits that CC brings in terms of increased reliability and risk reduction. It is these benefits that underpin the widespread implementation of this technology overseas and which make the product eminently suitable for the challenges of Australian networks.
Interpoling: Another advantage of Amokabel’s NGCC is that contrary to CCT and other covered conductor types, interpoling is not required at all when using the ACSR and AAAC products and only in very long spans when using the ACS product. This is due to the fact that the Amokabel ACSR and AAAC products are significantly stronger than their AAC counterparts, which are commonly in use today. Three common CC sizes are used today:
• CCSX159 (AAAC)
– Direct replacement for 19/3.25, 7/4.75
• CCSX62 (ACSR)
– Direct replacement for 7/2.5, 7/3.0, 7/3.75
• CCSX25 (ACS)
– Direct replacement for 3/12 steel
Surge Arrestors: International experience shows that, in fact, covered conductor is less susceptible to lightning and that surge arrestors can be employed in a similar fashion to bare wire. This is borne out by benchmarking utilities that have been using CC for up to 35+ years. Lightning activity in south-eastern Australia is also less than in many of the geographic locations that were benchmarked.
Operational Flexibility: With proper design, CC installations can provide the same operational flexibility as bare wire installations. Specifically designs can ensure that CC strains, CC tee-offs, HV fuse connections and HV UG connections are acceptable and practical isolation points, allowing networks the same flexibility as a bare wire installation while providing a host of other benefits that only CC provides.
According to Rutland, ”Amokabel’s New Generation Covered Conductor is a paradigm shift in overhead conductor technology in Australia. It provides vastly increased resilience, reliability and safety for our communities. Given the increasing number of extreme weather events, our networks need hardening and Amokabel’s CC solution is the most cost effective in the market. It is a solution that can clearly meet both the reliability and affordability expectations of regulators and achieve many of the benefits of undergrounding at a fraction of the cost. Amokabel has shown its confidence in the applicability of the product to Australian conditions by investing in local production, which will also help address many of the supply chain issues plaguing the industry.”
