FortisAlberta receives Environmental Stewardship Award for cable injection program
Nov 22, 2017, 20:37 PMOn Nov. 16, FortisAlberta was pleased to be one of the 10 recipients of Novinium’s annual Environmental Stewardship Award. Each year, Novinium selects the utilities based on the amount of cable that is rejuvenated.
Curtis Eck, Vice President, Engineering accepted the award. “In 2016, FortisAlberta rejuvenated 95 kilometers of cable. We have been using this technology for the last few years and have injected more than 350 kilometers of power cable to date," explained Curtis. "By the end of 2019, our pre-1975 vintage cable rejuvenation program will be complete. We are delighted to receive this recognition for our environmental management practices.”
Novinium is a Seattle-based cable service company that FortisAlberta partners with to extend the life of underground power cables. Their service is unique globally and it involves injecting pressurized silicone into cables to rejuvenate insulation, thereby extending the life of the cable up to 40 years. This eliminates the need to dig up most of the old cable except for areas where it has been spliced over the years. This process not only has several positive environmental benefits, it also helps to avoid disruption to customers from extensive excavation of power cable on personal, commercial or public property.
The positive environmental aspect is realized through cable injection in 2016 is the mitigation of 19,615 tonnes of CO2, which is like eliminating the greenhouse gas emissions from 4,200 passenger vehicles for one year. Or, it can be likened to the benefits of having planted 508,345 tree seedlings that have grown for 10 years.
