Six Utilities Share Their Perspectives on Insulators: Trends in the changing landscape of high-voltage insulators are revealed through utility interviews

摘要

The high-voltage transmission system in North America is the result of planning and execution initiated soon after World War II. Ambitious goals, sound engineering and the vertically integrated structure of utilities at that time all contributed to high reliability and good quality of electric power. The high-voltage transmission infrastructure development peaked in the 1970s. From then on until the turn of the century, load growth was not as high as anticipated, resulting in a drastic reduction in transmission activity. Consequently, the system was pushed to its limits, which led to a few large-scale blackouts. The consensus is that the existing system is bursting at its seams, continuing to age and needs refurbishment; at the same time, new lines are needed to handle load growth and transfer massive amounts of power from remote regions to load centers.