VELCO Right of Way Management VELC… · VELCO Right of Way Management Where We Were, Where We Are, and Where We are Headed . 12/16/2011 2 Major Responsibilities of Right of Way Management

12/16/2011

VELCO Right of Way Management

Where We Were, Where We Are, and Where We are Headed

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Major Responsibilities of Right of Way Management Team

• Vegetation Management – Ensure no vegetation caused outages – Ensure compliance with NERC FAC-003-1 – Ensure compliance with all PSB rules – Ensure compliance with herbicide permitting

• Clearing for Capital Construction – Tree Clearing for new lines and substations – Compliance with permitting as it relates to clearing

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Major Responsibilities of Right of Way Management Team

• Access Road Construction – Construct new on and off corridor access roads – Enhance existing on and off corridor access roads

• Access Road Maintenance – Maintain approximately 198 miles

• Aesthetic Mitigation – Over 10,000 trees planted on past projects requiring

annual monitoring and maintenance

• Aerial Patrols – Coordinate all scheduled and emergent aerial patrols

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Right of Way Management

• 732 line miles – 139 mile increase

in miles since 2005 – 23 % increase in

miles since 2005 • 13,000 acres of

right of way – 1577 increase in

acres since 2005 – 14 % increase in

acres since 2005

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The primary goal of the vegetation management program is to ensure the safety and reliability of the transmission system

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NERC FAC- 003-1 Vegetation Management Standard

• Following August 2003 Blackout NERC established FAC-003-1 Vegetation Standard

• Standard applies to all 200kV and above lines – Equates to 250 of the 732 miles on the VELCO system – Currently need to report all vegetation caused interruptions

to NPCC – NPCC may require 100kV and above lines be applicable to

the standard in the future

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• Vegetation Standard Requirements – R1.Transmission Vegetation Management Plan (TVMP)

• Documented policies, standards, practices, and procedures • Minimum vegetation to conductor clearances • Imminent threat procedures • Mitigation procedures • Personnel qualifications • Vegetation inspection standards

– R2. Annual Work Plans • Vegetation control methods to be used must be specified • Requires documentation that annual work plan completed • Requires documentation of any deviations of work plans


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• Vegetation Standard Requirements – R3. Reporting of vegetation caused outages

• Category 1: Grow in outages • Category 2: Fall in from within the right of way • Category 3: Fall in from outside of the right of way


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Violations of NERC FAC-003-1

Re: NERC Full Notice of Penalty regarding Metropolitan Edison Company,

The assessed penalty of ($650,000), in addition to other remedies and actions to mitigate

MetEd self-reported a violation of FAC-003-1 Requirement (R) 2 to ReliabilityFirst Corporation

On June 15, 2010, the owner of a residential property called to report observing a ”flash or ball of fire” and a crackling sound (flashover event) near power lines later determined to be MetEd’s 230 kV Transmission Line Number 1074 (Line 1074).

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TVMP VELCO Transmission Vegetation

Management Plan (TVMP) • Four year vegetation management cycle • Uses an Integrated Vegetation Management Program and Industry Best Practices • Follows NERC, NESC, and ANSI standards for Vegetation Management

• On file with NERC, PSB, VT Agency of Natural Resources, and VT Agency of Agriculture

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TVMP

• Goals of TVMP – Safety – Reliability – Environmental Impact

• Wetlands • Erosion Control • Wildlife Habitat • Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Species • Rare and Uncommon Natural Areas • Invasive Species

– Economics – Maintain Access – Public Lands – Aesthetics – Public Outreach and Education – Investigate New Technology

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VEGETATION MANAGEMENT INVENTORY SYSTEM (VIP)

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Benefits of VIP System

•Improve Data for Work Planning, Tracking and Budgeting

•Development of Annual Work Plan for NERC FAC-003-1 Standard

•Clearly Defined Work Scope

• Ability to View Environmental Information

• Ability to GPS ROW Features: Treatment Polygons, Private Wells, Access Roads, Fence Lines, etc…

• Improve the Information Supplied to: Vegetation Contractors and State Agencies

• Quality Assurance of Work Scope

• Improved Compliance with Regulations

• System has been Adopted by Other Departments

• In-House Technical Support

Future of the System

•Vegetation Contractors using VIP

•Reduce Paper Map

•Electronic Reporting of Completed Work

•Electronic Reporting of Herbicide use

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Typical Map Sheet

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Typical Rights-of-Way Treatment Data Sheet

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Vegetation Management Inventory System

System Deployment

• System Live – August 28, 2007

• Cost to Develop – $4,500.00

• Hardware Costs – $22,250.00

• Software Costs – $3,000.00

• Conception to Deployment – 2 Months

Results of Deployment

1 ½ Months to Inventory 100 miles of the VELCO System. Similar to previous years.

c 1700 Acres of Right of Way

c 951 Danger Trees

c 408 Special Trees

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GIS BASED AERIAL PATROL SYSTEM

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Benefits of System

• Improved Accuracy and Consistency of Patrol Notes

• Known Locations Without Keeping Track of Aerial Numbers or Counting Structures

• Very Easy Transfer of Notes of Various Crews

• Patrol Notes Can be Used for Tracking through Completion

• Very Simple to Use and Add Notes on the FLY

• In-House Technical Support

Future of the System

• Patrol Notes will be Used to Show Compliance that an Aerial Patrol was Completed of All Lines

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What is LiDAR? • LiDAR = Light Detection And Ranging • Light pulse emitted at a rate of up to

200,000 pulses per second • Uses a 20° angled lens to scan the

area beneath • Flight speed between 50 and 200

knots • Helicopter flown between 100 and

5000 meters high • Each pulse tagged with a specific GPS

location upon return

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Integration of Lidar into Vegetation Management

• Previous use of lidar at VELCO was limited to survey

information for capital projects (New Line Projects)

• Asset Maintenance was developing a 40 mile 115kV pilot program to gain some experience using lidar for ground clearance, facility ratings and vegetation management.

• NERC Alert for Facility Ratings issued and scope of

project went from 40 miles to the entire VELCO system of 732 miles (115kV to 450 HVDC)

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• Lidar data was delivered – Over a million classified vegetation interaction points

• 188 points of interest on all voltage classes, but

mostly 115kV. Many points were in coming year’s planned vegetation maintenance

• Loaded points into VELCO VIP as a GIS Layer

and used an Excel spreadsheet to track. • Field reviewed all 188 points (month)

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• What we found • None of the points were clearance

2 violations as observed • Needed to learn and understand

information – Brought us to the same old

“haunts” • Sensitive and difficult

landowners • Wildlife crossing • Road crossings • Environmental buffers • Required selectively cleared

areas for aesthetics

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• Tracked what we found in Xcel spreadsheet Delivered by Lidar Company

• Items Tracked – Forester that reviewed and date

reviewed – Actual height of vegetation – Clearance as observed – Action taken (remove, crown reduce, side trim) – Assigned to contractor or

completed in house – Completed and final sign off by

forester

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• Next Steps – What do we do with all this information? – cleaned up points of interests

• What are the next points when the trees begin to grow again next year?

– Re ran (points) polygons based on larger thresholds

• 115kV 4’ – 8’ • 230kV 6’ – 10’ • 345kV 10’ – 15’ • 450 HVDC 15’ – 20’

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• “Round 2” Lidar Polygons – Approximately 1200 polygons – Developed GIS layers of polygons into VIP

program – Developed sign off reporting into VIP program to

track progress

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• “Fall In” Trees – 64,461 Trees could hit the

conductors or come within Clearance 2 distance

– 31,433 trees would actually hit conductors

• VELCO foresters began reviewing “Fall Ins” as developing the 2012 Annual Work Plan Inventory

• Indentified Danger Trees and marked for removal using standard procedures as defined in TVMP

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• Advantages of Lidar Use – Another “tool” to aid foresters

in the field to make the appropriate decisions

• Can make decisions based on MAX sag and Sway – not as observed

• Tree heights and interactions with conductors easily viewed in the field

• Can aid in landowner disputes of whether vegetation will impact the line

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• Future Use of Lidar for Vegetation Management – Annual lidar survey of lines due for

maintenance the following year • Approximately one quarter of the system per

year

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2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Budget Amount 770,000 1,000,000 1,650,000 1,730,000 1,800,000 2,300,000 2,300,000 2,300,000

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

YEAR

VEGETATION MANAGEMENT BUDGET

Vegetation Management Budget

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YEAR FOLIAR BASAL CST CUT MOW WIDEN DANGER TREES

1996 $110 $566

1997 $174 $596

1998 $148 $711

1999 $115 $546

2000 $126 $507

2001

2002 $121 $606

2003

2004 $160 $724

2005 $190 $207 $658 $714 $715 $2,103 $142

2006 $247 NONE $806 $698 $720 ? $183

2007 $463 NONE NONE $724 $762 ? $106

2008 $278 NONE NONE $567 $713 $7,867 $180

2009 $306 $236 NONE $710 $703 $7,710 $191

2010 $146 NONE NONE $360 $642 $4,174 $105

Vegetation Management Average Costs Per Acre

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Summary - Most Significant Accomplishments

• Zero Vegetation Related Outages for Last 5 years • Zero PSB 3.6 Rules/Herbicide Permit Violations • Entire Vegetation Management program is on 4 year cycle • Integration of new Technology (VIP, Lidar, Range Finders) • Improved Data (Accurately Defined Work Scopes) • Improved Stakeholder Relationships • Exercising Full Easement Widths • Improved Tracking of Vegetation Management Costs • Quality Control on 100% of Annual Work Plans • Received Many Awards for Habitat Improvement • Tree Line USA Certification Last 5 Years

•

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Thank You!

Thank you !

Jeffrey S. Disorda

• Supervisor of Right of Way Management

• Vermont Electric Power Co., Inc. 366 Pinnacle Ridge Road

Rutland, VT 05701

• Email: [email protected]

• Desk Phone: (802) 770 - 6240

• Cell Phone: (802) 353 - 7006

Documents

VELCO Right of Way Management VELC… · VELCO Right of Way Management Where We Were, Where We Are, and Where We are Headed . 12/16/2011 2 Major Responsibilities of Right of Way Management