US Utilities - NERC FAC-003-1 Compliance
In the US, our vegetation products facilitate compliance with NERC Standard FAC-003-1, a regulation formulated to prevent outages on the scale of the 2003 blackout that affected large tracts of north eastern USA and Canada.
Clearance 1 considerations (radius pre-defined by utility):
- Line voltage
- Flashover distance (IEEE Standard 516-2003)
- Location in span
- Duration between treatments
- Anticipated conductor movements
- Vegetation growth rates
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Clearance 2 considerations:
- Minimum to prevent flashover under all conditions, including;
- Transmission line voltage
- The effect of ambient temperature on conductor sag under maximum design loading
- The effect of wind on conductor position (blowout conditions)
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A sustained vegetation-related outage for each of the categories below is reportable to NERC.
- Category 1 – Grow-ins: Outages caused by vegetation growing into lines from vegetation inside and/or outside of the ROW
- Category 2 – Fall-ins: Outages caused by vegetation falling into lines from inside the ROW.
- Category 3 – Fall-ins: Outages caused by vegetation falling into lines from outside the ROW.
Network Mapping offers a survey solution for compliance with FAC-003-1 for both clearance 1 considerations and clearance 2 considerations. In the case of the latter, danger trees and infringements are displayed in the context of the three NERC reportable categories.
Advantages of our approach
- Accurate identification of infringements
- Ability to model conductors under all load and weather conditions
- User friendly output for immediate field staff use
- Backbone of a continuing TVMP
- Auditable method that demonstrates FAC-003-1 compliance
- Mitigation of fines for vegetation-related outages, which can be as much as US$1,000,000/ day. Non-monetary sanctions, such as requirements to improve a utility's TVMP, can be much greater in cost than the monetary fines.
Hard copy plan sheets
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As-flown infringement checks
It is possible to identify any vegetation encroachments within a pre-defined radius from the conductor in its as-survey position shortly after aerial acquisition. The utility defines the radius, based on NERC Clearance 1 considerations (e.g. 25 ft).
The distance to vegetation from the as-surveyed wire positions will be checked, and any infringement on this pre-defined distance will be highlighted and reported
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Maximum sag and sway
The data is processed to provide pinpoint vegetation checks that locate both falling tree and grow-in vegetation violations at maximum conductor sag condition. The checks will be conducted with a pre-defined radius with consideration given to NERC Phase 2 clearances (reduced from as-flown since conductor position is at maximum sag).
This phase of the project requires processing in PLS-CADD™ by our dedicated engineers and technicians who will:
- Import classified aerial LiDAR data into PLS-CADD™
- Graphically sag the conductors
- Display the conductors at maximum sag
- Run danger tree analysis to client requirements
- Export data into formats stipulated
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Google Earth
We can show infringements within Google Earth allowing a simple 'point and click' interface. This data is hosted locally on a secure network and is only available to employees of a utility.
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Upon completion of a Network Mapping LiDAR survey for FAC-003-1 compliance, the dataset will be of such quality that it can be used to produce full PLS-CADD™ models for engineering applications.