APD completed more than 5000km of Line Engineering in the past financial year. We are one of Australia’s leading power line engineering companies with over 100 overhead and underground line design engineers across Australia and New Zealand.
At APD, we have full in-house capability, with our team consisting of Electrical, Mechanical, Civil & Structural Engineers supported by Designers, Draftspersons and Surveyors.
We are experienced in providing overhead & underground line & cable detailed design from 240V to 500kV. Our Lines & Cables team is accredited with every major utility across Australia and specialises in projects/programs for the utility, mining, renewable, defence and private sectors.
APD’s technical experience provides significant additional value to our clients by delivering optimised engineering solutions for renewable solar/wind/hydrogen connections, whether they require a new line extension or an augmentation to an existing feeder.
APD’s power line engineering services include underground and overhead carrier and hardware replacement for the voltage range 415V to 330kV, for new and off-set line builds, power line relocations and network major reinforcements applying both Limit State and Working Stress Design methods.
As a first principles engineering company, APD have developed efficient procedures to ensure engineering solutions are compliant, cost effective and practical to build, whilst still not compromising on quality.
APD designers have sound knowledge of the fundamental engineering power line design principles and of the standards that underpin the designs including AS/NZ7000 and AS/NZ2067. Our resources are trained with the latest power line profiling application software including PLS-CADD, CATAN and Poles ‘n’ Wires and have extensive experience working with various terrains, structure and pole types including wood, steel and concrete. APD are a National supplier of Power Line Engineering Services.
The key engineering outputs include:
APD are capable of integrating any line to substation arrangement, resolve and complete all line earthing design as well as power systems study in order to provide a one stop electrical shop solution for any terrain or scenario. APD offer full end-to-end solution for Substation engineering and can provide an integrated line to substation connection, including testing and commissioning.
Our designs are strong on quality, delivery and with our experience we can predefine and pre-order significant components of materials prior to detailed designs being completed. This allows us to provide an accelerated design and construction schedule and provide smooth delivery solution.
APD can assist with the concept line route selection through conductor and standards selection, identify the general arrangements and hence required transmission or distribution line corridors.
We also investigate and mitigate any existing utilities, environmental, earthing (EPR/LFI) related issues, land owner and 3rd party approvals to ensure the line route selected first time is 100% accurate and practical to build.
APD provides full tender preparation assistance such as structures, conductor and cable selections, pole and material quantities, and easement and corridor widths to ensure accurate scope definition for budget cost estimating.
APD’s Design, Construction and Maintenance (DCM) service closes the loop between standards, theory and practice to assess power line regulatory compliance.
The process and methodology developed by APD involves collection of in-situ power line structure, conductor and clearance data using specialised field measuring equipment and the development of a reverse engineered network model that enables simulations to be run.
The simulation results are subsequently compared against power line compliance parameters from the appropriate standards and original design drawing(s) to identify non-conforming structures and conductor.
This service is particularly useful in identifying power lines susceptible to failure, providing the asset manager with information to:
This service has been adopted by utilities across Australia to assess line compliance in bushfire prone areas and to verify post-construction the compliance of the reconstructed network following a bushfire.
APD’s power line engineering team utilise a vehicle mount Lidar point cloud data collection system as a tool to assist with assessment of existing overhead network. The vehicle network survey provides continuous imaging of the network while capturing point cloud survey data. The imaging data collected can be utilised for a visual and recorded inspection of the power line.
Post site visit data processing can overlay the point cloud survey data to the image allowing the following key measurements from the images:
APD utilises the point cloud survey data to complete a full power line compliance assessment by importing the survey data to either Catan or PLS CADD and recreating a model of the existing network. The models can then create additional scenarios to complete the following assessments:
APD are experts in the use of the following engineering power line design software:
APD Engineering was engaged to undertake Insulation Coordination and Reactor Switching Studies for a 275kV substation in South Australia. Advanced studies based on PSCAD/EMTDC modelling were…
Secondary scope to facilitate reconfiguration of 66kV transmission lines connecting to the Alinta Power Station on the BHP network, including Line protection relay upgrades.
Assess new / refurbished residential & commercial connections for regularised and non-regularised power networks at remote aboriginal communities.
Field Survey of more than 1,000 Energex Distribution Poles, 780 MDUs, 100 Private Poles, Design as per Energex Standards.
Provision of electrical distribution and street lighting design, nbn pit & pipe design services and construction assistance for 2 stage residential development.
