Powering Progress:

Advanced Utility Grid Solutions for Modern Challenges

Utility products must evolve to meet changing demands on the grid. Sometimes, changes create the illusion of a moving target, but the path to the future will be navigated with solutions that emerge from listening to customer needs, understanding the challenges, and partnering to identify new ways to deliver value across the board.

Utility Grid Solutions From the Ground Up

Making sure the power grid is resilient and reliable is a necessity, but keeping the grid up and running is challenging in operating conditions characterized by aging infrastructure, increasing demand, and a constrained transmission and distribution network.

Problem-solving Track Record

Southwire has been tackling service and delivery challenges for 50 years, examining trends and identifying the issues that compromise service to introduce solutions for various industry challenges:

Defense against storms, mitigation of wildfires, and grid modernization

Ecosystem for Innovation

We provide the environment and tools our experts need to design practical solutions that enable utility grid owners and operators to deliver consistent and reliable service in an evolving power transmission and distribution landscape.

ARH-Focused Solutions

Adaptable, reliable, hardening solutions are delivered via conductors, cables, and advanced technologies to improve the capacity of the power grid, reduce the carbon footprint of operations, and deliver efficiencies that position companies to meet growing demand without compromising workers or the environment.

These challenges are formidable, but they are not insurmountable.
In fact, effective, proven solutions are available if you look in the right place.

Capitalizing on Funding and Resources

Consistent power delivery requirements are higher than ever before, which has led to the federal government recognizing that system reliability and resiliency are problems that need to be addressed. The result is legislation that will help fund a much-needed power grid makeover that will address the gap between generation and transmission and the critical challenge of aging infrastructure. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), passed by the Senate in 2021, includes provisions for funding for workforce development and environmental projects.

1.25 Trillion over 5 Years

IIJA, the largest federal infrastructure investment in the country’s history.

76 Billion

for Power Grid Improvements*

2.5 Billion

for Grid Modernization

9 Billion

for Increasing Grid Efficiency**

*The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 includes several provisions for modernizing the utility grid to safely handle increasing demand from renewable energy sources and electric vehicles.
**The IRA provides $9 billion for energy efficiency programs with the goals of increasing grid reliability and resiliency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and lowering electricity costs.

Southwire offers many online engineering calculators to help execute IIJA projects from utility applications and mass transit to airports and EV charging.

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Game-Changing Solutions and Custom Designs

Consistent power delivery requirements are higher than ever. Power demand is growing, and transmission and distribution systems are lagging. This situation makes technologies that allow utility owners to bridge this gap critical, but they must be economical and easy to implement.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer; so having a toolbox of proven solutions enables problem-solving across a broad spectrum of industry challenges.

System Hardening
Utility Solutions
Concentric Neutral Calculator
CIC Labor Savings Calculator

Advanced Conductors

When lines need upgrading, reconductoring is often a viable solution for increasing capacity within existing rights of way, fixing clearance issues, and eliminating line losses. It is possible to meet growing demand by putting more aluminum in the air with acceptable sag to add capacity, reduce line losses, and reduce the amount of carbon released into the environment. These advances are made possible by using high-temperature, low sag conductors.

HTLS Conductors

ACSS Conductors:

ACSS

ACSS/TW

HS285^® Conductors:

HS285® Ultra-High Strength ACSS Conductor

HS285® Ultra-High Strength ACSS/TW Conductor

C^7® Conductors:

ACCS/TW/C^7®-TS^®ZTACCR/TW/C^7®-TS^®

Advanced Cables

Technology in Space

Halogen-free HDPE Conduits and All-in-One Cable In Conduit (CIC) Solutions for all infrastructure projects including grid modernizations, renewable power generations, ports and terminals, and data centers.
Shielded substation control cables to minimize wildlife attack at substations.
Covered conductors to replace bare overhead lines for ignition reduction and to mitigate wildfires.
Southwire’s very first Living Building Challenge™ (LBC) Red List Free XHHW-2 cable that can be used for utility network undergrounding upgrades and mass transit projects.
Flexible power cables to power Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).

Utilities need solutions that address capacity growth issues to do what they do in less time. That means conceptualizing ways to avoid ripping and replacing cables. In many cases, creative re-cabling solutions that allow retrofitting instead of replacing can be the answer.

Learn more about Southwire’s 360° Capital Rehabilitation Program.

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When it is critical to reduced cable size, increase ampacity, and improve flexibility to enhance grid performance, a concentric neutral calculator simplifies the process.

View more of the Concentric Neutral Calculator for utilities and renewables.

CIC can help reduce man hours during installation by significantly reducing the time and resources need to handle and pull cables. You can now confirm the Labor Cost Reduction using Southwire’s free online estimator.

Technology, Leadership, and Customer Support

Southwire’s comprehensive intellectual property portfolio comprises more than 500 U.S. and international patents for solutions that help companies establish a competitive edge, including labor-saving residential wiring packaging, robust and reliable commercial metal-clad designs, and industrial power cables that minimize pulling damage.

D.B. Cofer Technology Center

The Spark Innovation Center™

CableTechSupport™ Services’ Re3™

People Make the Difference

D.B. Cofer Technology Center

Solutions designed by the 80+ engineering team members at the D.B. Cofer Technology Center feature advanced materials and next-generation conductor/cable developments supported by world-class laboratories that support current and future engineering challenges.

Learn more about the D.B. Cofer Technology Center.

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D.B. Cofer Technology Center

The Spark Innovation Center™

CableTechSupport™ Services’ Re3™

People Make the Difference

The Spark Innovation Center™

Southwire has a long history of innovative products and processes, and The Spark, located on the campus of Georgia Tech, is both the catalyst and the platform to scale innovation across Southwire, organically.

The Spark was formed to aggressively pursue profitable, responsible, and sustainable business growth through new thinking, new learning, and new methodologies.

Southwire Spark

D.B. Cofer Technology Center

The Spark Innovation Center™

CableTechSupport™ Services’ Re3™

People Make the Difference

Southwire’s CableTechSupport™ Services’ Re3™ Mission

The Southwire mission for support services is to respond, rectify, and restore. That means no sale is final. Complimentary troubleshooting and problem-solving are part of every transaction. Every application or performance issue is addressed by ultra-fast engineering services champions, who resolve nearly 2/3 of inquiries within 24 hours.

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D.B. Cofer Technology Center

The Spark Innovation Center™

CableTechSupport™ Services’ Re3™

People Make the Difference

People Make the Difference

Our people are fundamental to innovation. It takes expertise, experience, and creativity to conceptualize designs and introduce effective solutions.

Axel Schlumberger

SVP,
Research and Development

Drives technology, product, organization, and growth strategies to meet changing and new market needs.

Connect with Axel

Yuhsin Hawig, Ph.D.

VP,
Applications Engineering

Leader of the CableTechSupport(TM) services, creator & chief editor for Southwire’s first recurring Re3 whitepaper publication.

Innovation at Work

Case Studies

In assessing a section of 138-kV transmission line for reconductoring, a utility company recognized that encroaching erosion required a lattice structure to be re-sited to more solid ground. Moving the structure addressed the issue of stability but increased the river crossing span length from 1,290 feet to 1,840 feet. The existing clearances to the river had to be maintained even though the span of the crossing was now 550 feet longer.

The performance of the C^7® Overhead Conductor not only made a full line rebuild unnecessary, it delivered new high-capacity service with low sag lines at a lower capital outlay for structures, foundations, and labor.

Additional Resources

20 Top Reasons to Convert to SIMpull® Cable-In-Conduit (CIC)

Southwire is the only North American supplier that manufactures a full line of wire and cable products pre-assembled in an HDPE conduit and equipped with couplers and fittings, if required. Explore the benefits of Cable-In-Conduit (CIC), especially on future projects covered by the 2021 Infrastructure Bill.

Learn more

17 Interesting Facts That Boost the Deployment of Cable-in-Conduit (CIC)

Southwire's SIMpull® Cable-In-Conduit (CIC) solutions enhance job site efficiency, reduce project costs, leverage sustainability, and more. Learn 17 interesting facts about CIC, including eight market trends and six of the most frequently requested designs specified by end users in recent years.

15 Top Features of Powerglide® MV and 600V Products

Southwire’s patented cable designs reduce the coefficient of friction (CoF) significantly and facilitate the installation of MV & 600V cables in conduit or raceway. Explore benefits including extended pull distance, permanent friction reduction, lower project costs, and unparalleled engineering support.

Discover more