By: Dick Belliveau, Retired Induron Sales Representative
After being semi-retired for almost two years, I still can’t pass an electric transmission line or substation without making a comment about its condition or when I worked on it in the past – much to my wife’s dismay!
I began painting electric transmission structures and substations for my father-in-law in the early 1980s. Back then, each electric utility had a group that bid out and inspected corrosion control work every year. Their corrosion maintenance cycle was 30 years for substations and 40 years for transmission structures.
However, the days of utilities having a group that manages corrosion in their substations and structures is mostly gone. Now, when a utility decides to begin a corrosion maintenance project, it is handed to one of the freshman engineers who has no idea where to start or what to expect. This is where Induron’s InduraPlan steps in.
The Induron InduraPlan for corrosion protection
I am most proud of my work with Induron’s power team. We developed and launched InduraPlan for customers in the Transmission and Distribution (T&D) industry.
The Induron InduraPlan consists of literature, documents, presentations and asset inspection for corrosion for all T&D maintenance engineers. Induron offers inspections, specifications, inspector training and a list of qualified contractors – all free of charge for electric utilities.
In my first meeting with “new” managers of corrosion control, my advice to them is to try to pick a transmission line that has easy access and not many structures to get your feet wet. Once managers get involved with outages, notifying private landowners for access, working with contractors and inspections, they understand how much time and effort it takes to manage a successful corrosion mitigation project. The second piece of advice I offer is to not look at the condition of your assets today but think of the condition they will be in 10 years when the actual work will be done!
Are you interested in Induron’s InduraPlan program? Contact us, and an Induron representative can help you set up a fundamental asset protection program that will extend the life of your T&D assets and avoid replacing T&D structures.