GeoWorld

GeoWorld March 2012

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Electrical Substation Upgrades/Management Power substation engineers anticipating TECHNOLOGY USED: High-definition terrestrial LIDAR scanning PROJECT OBJECTIVE: Provide engineering- grade data for upgrades/expansions to existing power substations. capital projects and wanting to benefit from comprehensive and detailed survey data are using terrestrial LIDAR technology. High- definition terrestrial LIDAR scanning is revolutionizing the role of surveying in many industries, including the power industry, and it's also meeting the specific challenges of substation engineers. A LIDAR unit in the hands of a skilled technician can capture as many as 50,000 measurements per second, or a few million points from a single occupation position. In addition, objects are mapped from up to hun- dreds of feet away, as long as there's a clear line of sight. Surveyors walking around with a five-foot metal Field-survey technician Chad Pringle (top) uses a Leica C10 to collect a dense cloud of data points at a safe distance away from electrical components. The LIDAR data are post-processed to create a 3-D facility model (middle), providing an increase in upfront information, reduction of unknowns and the ability to produce a better, more- informed mapping product (bottom). prism pole or GPS rover to take measurements now can be a thing of the past. With LIDAR, a surveyor sets up on the perimeter and stays a safe distance away from anything "live" or "hot." In addition to an enormous improvement in safety, a LIDAR survey captures accurate mapping of areas and items that couldn't be surveyed before, simply because no one is allowed to get within several yards of them. Live transformers, switches and everything adjacent to them can be mapped with precision. Also vital to consider in the substation- expansion process are the existing overhead transmission lines, likely hundreds of them at many different elevations. Previously, these elevations couldn't be mapped with any degree of precision, leading to height-clearance issues being discovered during construction as well as costly "mismatches" as crews link up a new tower with an existing one, and neces- sitating a need for field modifications and/or delays to construction while reordering materi- als to overcome the difference. With LIDAR, all elevations are pinpointed from the ground with a high degree of accu- racy, and the true parabolic shapes of the transmission lines—their points captured in a "data cloud"—can be readily visualized in a 3-D survey model. This improvement in the accuracy of captur- ing elevations also can be of great benefit when mapping many of the other common structures on substation sites, including the highest lattice towers—even those 80, 90 or more feet aboveground—and control buildings of all shapes and sizes, including those with peaked rooftops. Terrestrial LIDAR provides an increase in upfront information, a reduction in unknowns and the ability to produce a better and more- informed solution with less threat for rework due to a disconnect between the design and true field conditions. Torin Haskell is a senior account manager with Merrick & Company; e-mail: torin.haskell@merrick.com. MARCH 2O12 / WWW . GEOPLA CE . C O M 29

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