Enhancing the technology for ERS towers with Supreme Electricals

Supreme has designed and developed special modular base which was used on erecting a 400 kV tower in middle of a river which had no proper soil for anchoring the guy wires.

In a discussion, about ERS towers and challenges Harish Agarwal, CEO, Supreme & Co. Pvt. Ltd. Immediate Past President, IEEMA states, how Supreme Electricals is updating the technology and enhancing the services provided for ERS tower to help government achieve there notion ‘24X7 Power for All’.

A lot of power infrastructure was damaged in the recent natural calamities that happened in India. What kind of solutions do you suggest for the same?
As reported by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), 52 electricity transmission towers collapsed between October 2016 and March 2018. In most of the cases, transmission utilities have reported high intensity wind as the cause of tower failures. However, utilities could not substantiate their reasoning as they were unable to produce the actual wind speed data for the days when the towers failed. It is anticipated that there will be a significant growth in India T&D sector in coming 2-3 years. Government has embarked towards the objective of ‘24X7 Power for All’, with special emphasis on rural electrification.

A robust Indian power transmission system is needed to ensure ‘24X7 Power to All’. As a manufacturer of transmission towers and electrical hardware, we have been working for the last couple of years on a product which will make a significant impact in the transmission line sector. We planned on developing a solution which will help in reducing the outage time of transmission line. This led to the development of ERS towers, an indigenous product of Supreme.

We have developed Emergency Restoration System (ERS) that is used in case of any line reconductoring or re-routing. It is a temporary structure designed to bypass the existing transmission towers of any voltage in any terrain. They will be used until the main line is reconductored or restored. The entire structure can then be disassembled and reused. The line is restored and charged within few hours by using our ERS and thus prevent a huge financial loss of the utilities. Thus, it can be concluded that our emergency restoration technique is a unique solution to cope up with the emergencies caused by the natural calamities as well as for line uprating.

Isn’t transportation a concern here? What solutions do you provide for the same?
The unique feature of Supreme ERS structure is that they are made of High Strength Steel. The fully standardised fabrication process of High Strength Steel has made it an economical, functionally reliable and structurally stable option. The savings due to reduced outage time far outweighs the cost of such ERS which is now substantially reduced with the use of steel. The entire design is made in such a way that the whole structure can be erected in few hours. Sections are made modular in order to ease transportation as the site may be very remote to carry the structure. There is no need for any civil foundation. The tower is entirely supported using guy wires. Hence it is essential that all the guy wires are properly anchored to the soil. We have designed anchors to suit all kinds of soil.

Rather than selling structure, we offer complete end to end solution where we take care of transportation, erection, supervision and disassembling of the structure. This negates the O&M, training and storage cost that incur on the customer in case they own the system. Currently, it is taking 5-6 days to transport our structures to the site and begin the erection works. Hence, we are planning on setting up storage units across India which enables us to start line restoration immediately. We are discussing with major power corporations for Supreme to act as an electrical contractor for providing the ERS solution to them.

Is erecting ERS tower feasible in all catastrophic conditions?
Yes, Supreme’s ERS tower can be erected in all catastrophic conditions. Some of the projects already executed are given below:

We had to face a lot of challenges recently during execution of a project of Uttar Pradesh Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. to bypass a 132 KV line between Atur and Indra Puram which was a hindrance for the completion of 400 KV line. It was quite challenging as the line route had flyover, river and highway crossing. Three ERS towers were installed without any disruption to the highway traffic. Restoration to evacuate 580 MW power was completed within 4 days with a line shutdown of only 4 hours by using ERS.

As we all know that extremely severe cyclonic storm ‘Fani’ made a landfall in Puri on Odisha coast on 3rd May, 2019 (Friday morning) – triggering heavy rainfall accompanied with gusty wind at speed above 175 kmph. The storm lashed out its fury over the coastal district of Puri and other adjoining district with severe disaster. As per the official sources besides other major infrastructure, the entire power installations in and around Puri district got devastated in the cyclonic storm, which damaged 75 towers of 220 kV and 25 towers of 132 kV.

India’s first indigenously developed Steel based ERS tower by Supreme was used to substitute the wrecked 132 kV towers between Puri and Samkuha.

In addition to this, the most critical limitation on using the ERS structures is that there should be a proper soil for anchoring the structures. Supreme has designed and developed special modular base which was used on erecting a 400kV tower in middle of a river which had no proper soil for anchoring the guy wires. With this, we have taken out one of the major constraints on erecting the ERS towers and has enabled tower erection even in most unfavourable situations.

Harish Agarwal, CEO, Supreme & Co.