Customer Installations

3M ACCR has been installed to meet challenges in a variety of locations, environments, and ampacity requirements.

Utilities and Sites where 3M ACCR Is Being Used…		Application	Operating Since
Xcel Energy	Minneapolis, Minnesota	Installation procedure validation	2001
Hawaiian Electric Company	Oahu, Hawaii	Corrosive environment	2002
Western Area Power Administration	Fargo, North Dakota	Heavy ice and wind loads	2002
Bonneville Power Administration	Washington State	High temperature operation	2004
Western Area Power Administration	Phoenix, Arizona	Installation validation	2004
Salt River Project	Phoenix, Arizona	High current operation	2004
Pacific Gas & Electric	Santa Clara, California	High temperature operation	2005
San Diego Gas & Electric	San Diego, California	EPRI test	2005
Xcel Energy	Minneapolis, Minnesota	Environmentally sensitive area River crossing	2005
Arizona Public Service	Phoenix, Arizona	Dense population Underbuilds	2006
Western Area Power Administration	Arizona/California Border	High growth	2007
Aha Macav Power Services	Needles, California	Increased reliability	2008
Platte River Power Authority	Fort Collins, Colorado	Increased reliability	2007
Shanghai Electric	Shanghai, China	Cost and time savings	2007
Allegheny Power	West Virginia	Cost and Time savings Underbuilds
CTEEP	Sao Paulo, Brazil	Environmentally sensitive area Long span/river crossing	2008
Alabama Power	Birmingham, Alabama	Time and cost savings Underbuilds	2008

Figure 1: Locations of 3M ACCR Installations

Xcel Energy

In 2001 Xcel Energy installed 477-kcmil ACCR in its 115 kV system in Minneapolis to feed power from a generation plant to the network. It replaced a conventional ACSR conductor to increase the ampacity while keeping the same clearance and tower loads.
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Hawaiian Electric Company

Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) installed a similar 477-kcmil 3M ACCR on a 46 kV line located on the North Shore of Oahu for the evaluation of ACCR corrosion resistance. In particular, the installation tests the corrosion resistance of the conductor on their 46 kV network while also increasing the ampacity along the existing right-of-way by approximately 72%.
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Western Area Power Administration (Western)

Western is one of four power marketing administrations within the U.S. Department of Energy, and serves nearly 700 wholesale power customers in a 1.3 million-square-mile area, including some 300 municipalities, as well as public utilities and utility districts, energy cooperatives, power marketers, irrigation districts, Native American tribal communities and government agencies.

In 2002 795-kcmil 3M ACCR was installed by Western on the Fargo-Jamestown 230 kV line near Fargo, North Dakota. The climatic conditions there exposed the cable to high winds, extreme cold, ice loading and conditions conducive to aeolian vibration. ACCR was installed on a 1-mile stretch of the circuit. The first two winters after the line was energized were mild. However, in the winter of 2005/2006, ice built up on the conductor, doubling the span’s mechanical loads. Despite the ice loading, there have been no problems since the line was installed. The line data follows the predictions made by models for sag, tension, and rating.
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Bonneville Power Administration (BPA)

In June of 2004 BPA installed ACCR 675T13-TW on a 115 kV line in Pascal, Washington as a replacement for an existing Chuker 1780 kcmil (976 mm2) ACSR bottom phase. The purpose of the installation was to test the operation of the compact trap-wire ACCR at elevated temperatures. 3M provided its 675T13-TW conductor to BPA for installation at their Pasco site as a replacement for an existing Chuker 1780-kcmil (976 mmm2) ACSR bottom phase. The conductor was installed in June 2004, energized in August 2004, and has run continuously since then. Despite running at currents as high as 1,100 A, conductor temperatures did not exceed 80°C (computed). The mechanical load versus NRS temperature data at low current level matches the predicted values and has essentially been unchanged over time.
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Western Area Power Administration (Western)

In January 2004 Western installed 1272-kcmil 3M ACCR at its Liberty-Parker location in Phoenix, Arizona. The conductor was installed as an evaluation/validation cable for the installation of cable constructions with three layers of aluminum. The measured conductor tension and sag agree with predictive models. The line has been loaded to around 25% of its electrical rating since June 2004.
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Salt River Project (SRP)

3M ACCR has been installed in several locations in proximity to generating stations in order to test the conductor under high current loads where it will see high ambient temperatures. Conductors for these tests are sized so that they will operate at their maximum electrical design loads. SRP installed 795 ACCR on a 69 kV line at the expansion of their Santan generation plant in Gilbert, Arizona, in March of 2004. The 795 ACCR line delivers output of the Santan Expansion Project Unit 5b (combined cycle natural gas fired generator) to the 69 kV switchyard. The location is ideal to test 3M ACCR because it undergoes significant temperature swings and high summer peak demand (high conductor temperature) in desert conditions where ambient temperatures are very high.
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Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)

PG&E in Southern California installed 3M ACCR on line segments near a substation in Santa Clara.
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San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)

San Diego Gas & Electric, in Southern California, installed 3M ACCR on short line segments near a substation in Oceanside (just north of San Diego). The Oceanside installation was funded in part by the California Energy Commission. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will monitor the line’s performance. The test is scheduled to run until 2008.
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Xcel Energy

3M ACCR received its first commercial application when Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy installed it on a ten-mile (sixteen-kilometer) transmission line in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region. Xcel Energy is using the conductor to increase the capacity of a transmission line that extends from Shakopee to Burnsville. The upgrade is part of a US$100 million expansion project at the utility’s Blue Lake peaking plant in Shakopee, which is needed to ensure a reliable supply of power to Xcel Energy’s customers in the Upper Midwest during periods of peak electricity demand. The line crosses an interstate and two major highways at multiple points, as well as traversing several residential and industrial areas.

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Arizona Public Service (APS)

APS installed 3M ACCR to increase capacity on a key overhead transmission line serving Phoenix, a growing metropolitan area. The new conductor eliminated the need for the utility to site, acquire right-of-way, and construct a new power line route in a congested downtown business area.

3M ACCR was installed on a six-mile, 230 kV power line extending from a local area power plant to APS’ downtown substation. The installation provides increased capacity to service the fast-growing metropolitan area that experiences extreme summer heat. In this application, 3M’s ACCR 1272-kcmil conductor was used to upgrade a line that already had been upgraded once with ACSS.

The utility selected ACCR as a result of a twelve-month evaluation of various high temperature, low sag conductors. 3M’s ability to supply a complete package, including conductor hardware and installation support, was instrumental in the utility’s selection of ACCR.
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The Western Area Power Administration (Western)

Western, which delivers about 40 billion kilowatt-hours of hydroelectric power annually in fifteen western and central states in the U.S., chose 3M ACCR to replace a key conventional power line in western Arizona.

3M ACCR is installed on a twenty-mile stretch of the Topock-Davis 230 kV line, which parallels the Colorado River along Arizona’s western border with California. The area of service includes fast-growing communities such as Lake Havasu City and Bullhead City in Arizona; Laughlin, Nevada; and Needles, California.
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Aha Macav Power Services

Aha Macav Power Services, a utility owned and operated by the Fort Mojave Tribe in the Southwest, is the first Native American utility to deploy 3M ACCR.

Under an agreement with the Western Area Power Administration (Western), Aha Macav installed a new four-mile 3M ACCR line linking a new substation in Arizona to a switchyard in Needles, CA, a city on the western bank of the Colorado River.

The new line substantially boosts power capacity and reliability for Needles and the surrounding area, which have been plagued by frequent electricity outages in recent years, often during periods of extreme high temperature. The Fort Mojave Tribe, whose reservation encompasses portions of eastern California, southern Nevada and western Arizona, is one of only a handful of tribes served by its own utility. Installation of the 3M ACCR was installed in March 2008.
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Platte River Power Authority

To ensure adequate transmission capacity during summer peak demand hours, Platte River Power Authority will install the 3M ACCR as a replacement conductor on a key three-mile segment of a line that links Fort Collins and Loveland, extending from the Timberline Substation southward along the Union Pacific railroad right-of-way to the Harmony Substation.

Platte River Power Authority generates reliable, low-cost and environmentally responsible electricity for its owner communities of Estes Park, Fort Collins, Longmont and Loveland, Colorado, for delivery to their utility customers. Its facilities are located along the Front Range and northwestern Colorado in addition to near Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Installation is scheduled for Fall 2007.
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Shanghai Electric Power Company, Ltd

On October 14, 2007, Shanghai Electric became the first utility in Asia to install and energize 3M ACCR. Shanghai Electric, a publicly owned utility whose major shareholders are China Power Investment Corp. and East China Power Development Company, serves the Shanghai metropolitan area with more than 2,800 megawatts of generating capacity. Shanghai is the largest city in the People’s Republic of China, and the eighth largest metropolis in the world. Shanghai Electric deployed 3M ACCR to shorten construction time and save costs while increasing capacity on a key 10-mile line serving the growing demand in the city of Shanghai.
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Allegheny Power

Allegheny Power, a division of Allegheny Energy Inc., installed 3M ACCR to upgrade a 138 kV line linking the Bedington and Nipetown substations along Interstate-81 in West Virginia. The 1.7-mile upgrade boosted transmission capacity on a line some 50 miles northwest of Washington, D.C. The 138 kV line shares structures with three other lines for most of its length, including two under-built 12 kV lines, has a flow of 2,200 amps and is expected to peak at a temperature of 200°C. The line is built on self supporting steel poles with drilled pier concrete foundations.

3M ACCR gave Allegheny the ability to leave the under-built 12 kV circuits in service during construction and to avoid structure replacement. It also sags neatly with an adjacent 954 ACSR conductor on the same structure.
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CTEEP

Companhia de Transmissao de Energia Eletrica Paulista (CTEEP) will install 300 kcmil 3M ACCR to upgrade a 138 kV transmission line crossing an environmentally sensitive river bed. CTEEP, which is principally owned by Grupo Empresarial ISA (ISA Group), one of South America’s largest electricity and telecommunications providers, supplies almost all of the electricity consumed in the State of Sao Paulo and 30 percent of the electrical power consumed nationwide. The line will boost capacity for power transmission for the Jupiá Electrical System. The line crosses the nearly mile-wide Parana River and is subject to strong winds and extremely high temperatures. “3M ACCR was determined to be the most cost-effective, proven solution available,” says CTEEP engineering manager Caetano Cezario Neto.
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Alabama Power

Alabama Power Company, a subsidiary of Southern Company, will install 3M ACCR to upgrade a 1.7 mile line at their Miller Steam Plant, in Jefferson County, Alabama, approximately 25 miles northwest of Birmingham.

Alabama Power’s upgrade, utilizing 3M ACCR 1033 kcmil 54/19 Curlew, will boost transmission capacity on a line that goes through and loops around the Miller Steam Plant. The upgrade is part of Alabama Power’s ongoing, multibillion-dollar environmental initiative, designed to reduce emissions from the company’s power plants while continuing to meet the growing demand for power. The new 230 kV line, scheduled for installation this spring, will be rated to carry up to 2,000 amps and is expected to peak at a temperature of 200°C.

The existing line crosses below three 500KV line and above one 230KV line and is supported on five existing lattice steel structures. The 3M conductor provides the required capacity, while utilizing the existing structures and maintaining or improving the existing clearances to ground and other obstacles. As a result, significant savings were achieved in both time and cost by eliminating the need for the design, supply and construction of new towers.
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