The Challenge
A customer that operates in the north west of Scotland, near Riconich, contacted Generator Power to support some essential maintenance efforts in a unique and challenging locality.
Old power lines running across the Scottish highlands required remote power while work is carried out. However, no vehicular access was available to get anywhere near the site, let alone to the remote position where the generator was needed.
The Solution
The power lines that currently service this remote area of the Scottish highlands near Riconich were originally installed in the 1980s, and due to the remoteness of the route and difficulty of the terrain, the poles were all carried in by hand.
Therefore, to reduce some of the strain on the installation teams who worked on this site 30 years ago, the distance between the poles was increased to around 40-50 feet above the average span. The reduced support for the power cabling, coupled with the extreme conditions, make this area a common place for faults to occur.
Our customer has a rolling program to increase the number of poles, and provide greater stability for the properties in the area. As part of the program, the system needs to go offline during the upgrade works, which is where Generator Power was brought in to help.
We flew a 40kVA generator, a 20kVA generator to the location by helicopter, as this was the only way to reach a suitable position for the duration of the task. However, with a maximum lifting load of one tonne, the helicopter was only able to transport the fuel containers when half full, so multiple tanks had to be provided for the generators to last the duration needed for the customer to complete the 3-4 week task.
Our own Kyle Thorpe headed to Inverness Airport to fly out in the helicopter, collect the generators from the nearest car park, and connect them at the other end while assisting with siting.
