Salmon and steel transmission poles are words not often used in the same sentence in the power delivery industry. As utility professionals responsible for the infrastructure spanning the countryside through a myriad of environmental and ecological conditions, we know that wildlife can be impacted by the work we do. Is it possible to protect both with the right mindset and approach to T&D asset management?

Grid reliability has been a key tenet of utility engineering and operations efforts. In addition, grid resiliency has been seen as a crucial means to achieving a high level of reliability which society now demands, but it doesn’t have to happen at the expense of the environment. The need to preserve and protect native ecosystems often intersects our need to maximize the life and performance of our high voltage equipment.

Regardless of the operating territory, every utility at some point in time has had to coordinate with other agencies to mitigate damage or disturbance to the environment while maintaining existing or constructing new transmission lines. And often we are forced to respond to situations born from factors entirely out of our control. Snohomish County Public Utility District’s (SNOPUD) ‘SR529 Mitigation Project’ is a classic example of multiple agencies responding to an environmental need with some “out of the box” thinking.

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For more utility related reading, check out the potential impact of the Supreme Court’s Chevron decision, TerraPower’s new reactor construction, and the demand for AI potentially driving more generation investment.