Indian lab develops indigenous system for power lines

The Chennai-based Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC) has developed an indigenous technology, Emergency Retrieval System (ERS), for quick retrieval of power transmission in the event of failure of transmission line towers. The SERC, a constituent laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has signed an agreement for licensing of the ERS technology with Advait Infratech, Ahmedabad, said a government press release.

At present, the ERS is imported. There are very few manufacturers across the world and the cost is relatively high. This technological development will enable ERS manufacturing in India for the first time, which will be an import substitute and will cost about 40 per cent of imported systems.

The ERS has a huge market in India as well as in Saarc and African countries. Hence, this technological development is a big leap forward towards Atma Nirbhar Bharat and Make in India.

The ERS is a lightweight modular system that is used as temporary support structure to restore power immediately after the collapse of transmission line towers during natural calamities such as cyclone/earthquake, or manmade disruptions. It can be assembled quickly at the disaster site for restoration of power in two to three days, whereas the permanent restoration may take several weeks.

This development is very significant as failure of transmission lines severely impact lives of common people and causes huge monetary loss to the power companies. As the total losses and damages are directly proportional to the outage duration, time is a crucial factor in reinstating or remediating the damaged/fallen structures.

Made of structurally highly stable box sections, ERS is lightweight, modular and reusable. It provides complete solution from member connections up to the foundation for different type of soil conditions. The system is verified through rigorous structural tests. Basic knowledge and tools are enough to assemble and install ERS at the disaster site. Suitable configurations for different voltage-class of transmission line systems are possible. The system is compact and yet provides full functionality on erection. It is designed as a scalable system for 33 to 800 kV class of power lines and can help in building a disaster resilient society.

The agreement was signed in the presence of Prof. Santosh Kapuria, Director, CSIR-SERC, and S.K. Ray Mohapatra, Chief Engineer (PSE & TD), Central Electricity Authority, New Delhi..