Circuit Integrity Cable

Brazil's CPFL Piratininga Installs 3M ACCR on Key Transmission Line to Avoid ...

CPFL Piratininga, the distribution unit of CPFL Energia, which serves more than 6.5 million customers in four of Brazil’s states, has installed the conductor on a double-circuit 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) segment of its Henry Borden-Jabaquara line near Cubatão on the coast of São Paulo State.

Upgrading the line segment with a conventional steel or aluminum conductor would have required larger towers to be built in a marshy flood plain that posed foundation construction problems and high costs, besides the danger of interfering with underground oil and gas pipelines, according to Paulo Ricardo Bombassaro, engineering director of CPFL Piratininga.

Henry Borden-Jabaquara represents the utility’s third application of 3M ACCR, and the seventh application in South America by five utilities. The light-weight, low-sag, high-capacity conductor also is in use by more than a dozen U.S. utilities, and by electric power companies in Europe and Asia, including China and India.

“3M ACCR is gaining worldwide recognition as a reliable, cost-saving and time-saving problem-solver for capacity expansion projects, wherever tower construction and right-of-way enlargement pose difficulties,” says Tim Koenig, director of the 3M High Capacity Conductor Program. “Its applications have been in environmentally-sensitive river and channel crossings, dense urban neighborhoods, and locations where line clearance is an important factor.”

Koenig adds that 3M ACCR offers a proven, readily available and cost-effective option with which to accommodate the growing need to link renewable energy sources to the power grid. “It’s an important new tool to help utilities meet the expanding range of demands that our changing society imposes on electricity distribution,” he says.

The upgraded Henry Borden-Jabaquara line employs 3M ACCR for two crossings of the Boqueirão River as it meanders eastward from the nearby Serra do Mar Mountains to Brazil’s Atlantic coast. The line serves residential and industrial customers in Cubatão, which is about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from Santos -- city of Brazil’s major port.

Mr. Bombassaro says the problems associated with upgrading the line with a conventional conductor would have been compounded by the need to build a temporary parallel line to compensate for the outage. “We would have required two sets of foundations in that difficult terrain, taking an estimated 10 months to complete,” he explains. “The ACCR stringing needed only four months, with no construction time.

Circuit Integrity or CI Cable | NICET FOR FIRE ALARM

We are here to help you better understand the ever changing World of fire alarms and other low voltage systems including CCTV, Access Control, Intrusion, Nurse Call, fire alarm wiring, conduit bending, Areas of Refuge and Mass Notification. We have put together some great information on DVD to assist you with studying for the infamous NICET and CA State Fire Technician exams and encourage our readers to sign up as members. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions. Previously, in order to achieve the 2 hour fire rating fire alarm installers have been forced to utilize the MI cable which is copper conductors with a magnesium oxide insulation covered by a copper sheath.  Due to the MI (mineral insulated) cable's difficult installation characteristics it is typically used for emergency power circuit feeds for fire pumps and emergency generators.  However, an alternative to MI cable is now available. CI (circuit integrity) cable is typically soft jacked with solid conductors which is also listed for use in fire alarm and voice communication systems.  The CI cable's soft jacket changes state when it is exposed to high temperatures, creating a fire resistant insulator.  However, until the CI cable's jacket is subjected to the high temperatures of a fire the cable is as flexible as your standard cable (FPLR, FPLP, etc.).  These characteristics make it as easy to install as any other cable.  Your technicians can pull it through standard raceways and conduits as well as install it without any special tools or training.  Be aware prices are not cheap!

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