Photos: INMR ©
Y Tubular Towers on 500 kV Line Through Arizona Desert
The 500 kV Mead-Phoenix Project, energized in late 1995, runs over 250 miles( 400 km) from the Marketplace Substation in southern Nevada to a switchyard located in Phoenix Arizona. Like a‘ sister’ project from Nevada to Los Angeles, this particular line – operated by Salt River Project – was specially designed and insulated so that, if required, it could be converted quickly to DC, thereby enlarging power transfer capacity from 1300 to 2200 MW.
Special towers used to prevent industrial espionage proved a perfect complement to desert’ s unique cacti.
Another interesting aspect of the line’ s design was selection of costly‘ Y-shaped’ tubular towers for two sections, one where the line crosses two rivers and the second where it passes a sensitive automotive testing ground. In the first instance, engineers wished to avoid the risk of‘ scouring’ – a process whereby logs and rock debris carried downstream by the rivers erode foundations of standard lattice towers. In the case of the test facility, the owners did not want to use lattice towers to prevent anyone from climbing them for the purpose of industrial espionage.
As it turned out, these Y-tubular towers proved a perfect aesthetic choice to complement a beautiful desert region populated by huge Sagauro cacti.
Normal tower along Mead-Phoenix line is lattice type.
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