News
Power Lines: Energy Distribution and Maintenance Challenges in Argentina
Power lines that run across the landscape often go unnoticed, but they play a vital role in our daily lives by delivering electricity to homes, businesses and industries. In Argentina, energy distribution is a complex and fascinating process that faces unique challenges, let's learn a little more:
Energy Distribution in Argentina
The energy distribution system in Argentina is a mix of public entities and private distribution companies, working together to ensure reliable delivery of electricity. High-voltage power lines transmit electricity from generating plants to substations, a process that covers long distances but whose high voltage helps reduce energy loss.
From the substations, electricity is transformed to lower voltages suitable for consumption and distributed to homes and businesses through a network of smaller, lower voltage power lines. This is how end users receive electricity that they consume for purposes ranging from lighting and heating to the operation of industrial machinery.
Some Curious Facts
- In urban areas you don't see as many power line towers because the cables are usually buried to avoid visual pollution and reduce the risk of power outages due to storms. The problem with this is that underground cables are significantly more expensive to install and maintain.
- Birds can land on power lines safely because they do not complete a circuit. The electricity flows through the path of least resistance, which is the wire itself, and does not pass through the bird's body.
- Power lines are typically high voltage to minimize power loss during transmission; The voltage can vary from 110 kV to 765 kV, depending on the distance and the amount of power being transmitted.
- The cables used in power lines are usually made of aluminum or a mixture of aluminum and steel. Aluminum is preferred for its conductivity and lower weight, while steel provides greater strength.
- Modern power lines are part of “smart grids” that use digital technology to manage and respond to energy use. These networks help improve system efficiency, reliability, and sustainability.
Maintenance Challenges
Maintaining power lines and ensuring uninterrupted power distribution is a challenging task, with scenarios such as the formation of bird nests and the growth of vegetation near towers, posing threats to power distribution and risk of fires. With drones that inspect hard-to-reach lines and artificial intelligence that optimizes preventive maintenance, Uali improves system efficiency by monitoring these and other events to ensure the health of asset infrastructure.
Additionally, many parts of the power distribution network age, dry out or rust and require constant maintenance to replace parts and prevent failures or power outages.
On the other hand, Argentina's vast and varied landscape poses significant challenges for maintenance crews. From densely populated urban areas to remote rural regions, accessing and repairing power lines can be difficult and time-consuming.
Extreme weather conditions also present challenges in these scenarios. Storms, heavy rain and strong winds can cause significant damage to power lines, leading to power outages and requiring extensive repairs, requiring substantial investments in the maintenance and modernization of the power distribution network.
Power lines are an essential but often overlooked component of our modern infrastructure. In Argentina, the energy distribution system is a complex network that faces unique challenges. Understanding these aspects helps appreciate the efforts involved in maintaining reliable electricity delivery and highlights the importance of continued investment and innovation in this critical industry.
At Uali we combine robotics, IoT and artificial intelligence, providing precise and actionable data to the energy industry to facilitate decision-making in the care of its most relevant assets and thus generating a positive environmental impact. Get to know us!
Aitziber Zuazo
Energías Renovables
