This month, the IEEE SA has approved two new power engineering standards that offer guidelines to protect power lines and related devices as well as birds and other wildlife while ensuring fewer costly interruptions for utilities companies and their customers.
- The first new standard is IEEE 1651™, “Guide for Reducing Bird-Related Deaths.” This standard covers methods, techniques, and designs to mitigate bird-related power interruptions and equipment damage resulting from avian interactions with electric facilities. The standard addresses a wide range of situations, including electrocutions, collisions, nesting problems, and outages caused by fecal contamination and fecal streamers. Topics include bird impacts to transmission lines, distribution lines and substations, as well as woodpecker issues.
- The second new standard is IEEE 1656™, “Guide for Testing the Electrical, Mechanical, and Durability Performance of Wildlife Protective Devices on Overhead Power Distribution Systems Rated up to 38 kV.” The standard applies to wildlife protective products installed on overhead electrical distribution systems and provides test recommendations for products that are in direct contact or in the proximity of energized parts and conductors.
IEEE has also approved work to begin on four new power engineering standards.
- IEEE P430™, “Standard Procedures for the Measurement of Radio Noise from Overhead Power Lines and Substations,” will fill the need for a standard method of measuring corona-induced noise from power lines in order to address customer complaints and implement appropriate corrective measures.
- IEEE P1453™, “Recommended Practice for Measurement and Limits of Voltage Fluctuations and Associated Light Flicker on AC Power Systems,” adopts a section of international standard IEC 61000-4 as an IEEE standard.
- IEEE P1695™, “Trial-Use Guide for Assessing Voltages at Publicly and Privately Accessible Locations,” will be the first industry standard to describe the variety of publicly and privately accessible voltages resulting from the delivery and use of electrical energy. This guide will help dispel misinformation surrounding this topic and enhance public safety.
- IEEE P1829™, “Guide for Conducting Corona Tests on Hardware for Overhead Transmission Lines and Substations,” will establish uniform procedures for the testing of transmission line and station bus hardware in high voltage laboratories.
In addition, IEEE has determined the following standards will be revised:
- IEEE P1283™, “Guide for Determining the Effects of High Temperature Operation on Conductors, Connectors, and Accessories,” will be revised along with three other standards,
- IEEE 977™, “Guide to Installation of Foundations for Transmission Line Structures,”
- IEEE 1036™, “Guide for the Application of Shunt Power Capacitors,” and
- IEEE 1410™, “Guide for Improving the Lightning Performance of Electric Power Overhead Distribution Lines” — have been approved and published.
Finally, IEEE has reaffirmed two standards:
- IEEE 539™, “IEEE Standard Definitions of Terms Relating to Corona and Field Effects of Overhead Power Lines,”
- IEEE 1308™, “IEEE Recommended Practice for Instrumentation: Specifications for Magnetic Flux Density and Electric Field Strength Meters – 10 Hz to 3 kHz.”
