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Altalink Replaces Aging Transmission Line With Help Of Cat® Rental Power
As one of Canada’s largest transmission companies, AltaLink maintains and operates around 7,500 miles of transmission lines and 280 substations in Alberta, making up the bulk of the high-voltage electricity transmission infrastructure in the province.
In Banff National Park – Canada’s first national park and a popular tourist destination – AltaLink replaced the aging, 37-mile power transmission line that serves Lake Louise as well as all of the residents and businesses west of the town of Banff. Built in the 1960s, the line and many of the structures had reached the end of their working life, which impacts power reliability.
An important stage of AltaLink’s project involved replacing the structures and conductor in the mountainous terrain, which did not allow for the construction of a temporary line to keep the lights on for the loads west of Banff.
The turnkey solution provided by Finning included the engineering and design, as well as operating and maintaining the plant for the duration of the project.
The installation included six Cat XQ2000 diesel rental power generator sets, which ran 24/7.
To ensure 100 percent reliability, Finning guaranteed uptime of the plant through its use of remote asset monitoring.
The rental power plant was connected to a temporary electrical switch station that fed power to a nearby substation.
If any faults pop up, the condition monitoring analysts at Finning’s Edmonton headquarters will see it right away and notify the customer or a Finning technician in the field.
The project began in spring 2019 and involved the replacement of the structures and wire, as well as the removal of trees along the right-of-way that could potentially fall on the line. During the summer, the project entered an important stage – replacing the structures and conductor in the mountainous terrain, which would not allow for the construction of a temporary line to maintain power to the loads west of Banff.
Requiring an alternate source of power for approximately three months, AltaLink worked with Cat® dealer Finning Canada to engineer, operate, and maintain a temporary power plant that included six Cat XQ2000 diesel rental power generator sets, which ran 24/7 while the crews rebuilt the line.
A team of condition monitoring analysts at Finning’s headquarters in Edmonton monitored the generator sets remotely using Cat Connect Remote Asset Monitoring (RAM) technology to ensure reliability. Using RAM, six analysts at Finning could continuously monitor real-time site performance data and inform technicians in advance of any issues that could lead to a shutdown.
“Having our fleet connected to remote asset monitoring really gives us a second set of eyes to view the equipment and provide real-time status back to our team in the field,” says Mike Kuzminski, an industry manager in Finning’s rental power division. “This allows us to schedule preventative maintenance in advance knowing what the condition of the units is.”
Ultimately, Cat Connect served as a form of insurance for AltaLink as they continued the project, allowing them to focus on the work rather than power reliability.
