Hotline of power engineering specialists:
The season of intensive repair work will begin in IDGC of Centre — Kurskenergo division in May, but the work to clear ROWs along overhead lines off trees and shrubs has been underway since January. For three months ROWs along power lines of all voltage classes in an area of more than 130 hectares have been cleared.
During 2013 it is scheduled to perform work in an area of over 880 hectares. Geographically the cutting plan has been designed taking into account data of a helicopter overflight of
Clearing of ROWs in Kurskenergo for the third year has been performed with the use of an off-highway mechanical wood chopper (mulcher). This special vehicle has given a good account of its operation in terms of environmental and fire safety and economic effectiveness. The mulcher provides continuous grinding of vegetation into chips, which do not need to be disposed of later. This reduces the amount of manual labour, raises productivity, and significantly increases the area and amount of clearing.
«Clearing ROWs along power lines is a necessary measure to help minimize the risks of outages associated with falling trees onto power lines and avoid technological failures in the electric grid equipment operation,» stressed Deputy Director for Technical Issues — Chief Engineer of IDGC of Centre — Kurskenergo division Alexander Rudnevsky.
Along with the clearing ROWs along power line, experts of Kurskenergo are performing compensatory planting. Since 2011 the company has been implementing the program «Save the energy of the forest». As part of the campaign Kurskenergo’s staff have planted more than 800 saplings of trees and shrubs in the Kursk region. This year’s tree planting work will continue.