We hear an almost constant reference to "Aging Utility Infrastructure" these days. The recent events with the power grid possibly initiating the California wildfire damage have inevitably began to put an entirely new focus on the structural reliability of our electrical T&D infrastructure. Everyone, including Regulators, will likely be looking more critically at this infrastructure in the future, and trying to determine what the long-term ramifications might be if failures occur on parts of this infrastructure. The latest ASCE Infrastructure Report Card has again assigned the Energy Industry a D+ grade primarily due to it "Aged" infrastructure. For sure, everything (including people) deteriorate with age. But is "Age" really the issue we should prioritize our efforts around when it comes to addressing long-term structural performance and reliability of our Pole and Tower assets? In our experience, "Quality", not "Age" should be the primary consideration in the assessment of structural integrity and reliability. We likely all know of structural defects or failures that have happened within the first few years following installation, and at loads well below those the assets are being designed to resist. It is also likely that we know of similar assets that have not failed after more than 60+ years of reliable service. What was the difference? Most likely the newer assets had an undetected "quality escape" during initial manufacture of those assets which caused the problem. A "quality escape" is an asset released by a supplier that is subsequently determined to be nonconforming to a purchase contract and/or product specification requirements. When the applicable codes, standards, and specifications are clearly and unambiguously met, or better yet, exceeded, we end up with far more reliable, and higher quality assets that will perform as expected over the long-term. To most effectively improve long-term O&M programs, most Utilities would be well served to put age of assets aside and focus more on initial asset quality. Applying more resources into critically improving specifications and diligently monitoring initial manufacturing quality of the poles, towers, and other equipment being purchased will help improve asset quality and reduce "quality escapes". As well, such focus will provide dramatic improvements in overall long-term reliability of a system and will serve to reduce unexpected maintenance and repair costs of these assets over the long-term.
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