After an in-depth review of pole materials, the utility installed 30 composite poles in Virginia Beach and looks ahead to more installations.

For engineers at electric utilities, the pressure is on to design a super-resilient power grid that can handle numerous competing demands without tanking the bottom line. It is a tough task.

Broadening the material choice of their poles has helped Dominion Energy to be more sustainable and deliver on its promise of reliable, on-time electric service. The utility has begun integrating composite utility poles into its power grid. Initial installations have already yielded a smoother supply chain, an even safer, more straightforward installation, and the resilience to keep the lights on, no matter what nature has thrown at them.

The Challenge

The top priority for overhead application engineers and other similar roles is ensuring structures will be resilient, reliable and up to code. But the job also involves many other considerations, like total cost, worker safety, supply chain, transportation costs and more. And unlike other industries, the impact of failure is extreme. Utilities must keep the lights on, as they have a responsibility to every person on their system.

Weather and soil conditions in Dominion’s Virginia to North Carolina territory in particular make this challenging. Many areas along the Atlantic Coast are highly salt-contaminated and experience high temperatures and sun exposure. This can desiccate wood poles, weakening them and increasing the likelihood they will wriggle out of the sandy soil during extreme weather, causing lines to fall.

Because of this, and with intense weather events increasing in frequency and load demands rising, Dominion has spent a lot of time in the last few years on grid resiliency. This focus included voluntarily increasing its minimum ANSI Class standards in 2020. For example, a 40-ft (12-m) pole used to require a standard of Class 4. Now, a minimum standard of Class 3 is required for a 40-ft pole. Factoring in the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) calculations for extreme ice and wind, Dominion found it was installing far more Class 1 poles than in the previous decade.

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