Location
Multiple States
P&J Role
Prime Contractor
Completion Date
May 2022
Multiple States
Prime Contractor
May 2022
American Electric Power (AEP) developed and implemented the Transmission Vegetation Management Program to ensure compliance with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reliability standard FAC-003-4. ROW fall-ins are one of the number one reasons for outages across AEP transmission lines, and the program is intended to maintain a reliable electric transmission system by using a defense-in-depth strategy to manage vegetation located adjacent to the ROW.
P&J’s hazard tree removal program focuses on off-the-ROW hazard trees, which are managed, patrolled, and cut by P&J. This allows AEP to receive program updates and monitor program progress from one source instead of multiple contractors. P&J’s start-to-finish program has allowed AEP foresters to focus instead on ROW compliance issues and maintenance work. AEP can utilize their foresters again, while P&J focuses on off-ROW hazards. AEP identified that off-ROW fall-ins where one of their number one reasons for outages across AEP transmission lines. P&Js work in identifying and removing these hazard trees off the ROW will provide AEP and its customers with a safer and more reliable transmission grid.
P&J’s Vegetation Reliability Team is providing pre-inspection listing, auditing, and cutting danger trees across three regions and eleven states within the northeastern and central United States along 35,000-miles of ROW within AEP’s existing overhead line network. The eleven states include the east region (Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Virginia), the north region (Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio), and the south region (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas). The project includes a total of 35,180 miles of existing transmission lines, ranging in voltage from 23kV up to 765kV.
Skilled P&J hazard tree inspectors are patrolling AEP’s ROWs to identify and tag hazard trees. Any tree that can strike AEP facilities is evaluated by inspectors for health or growth defects or any other underlying issues that make the tree a hazard to the facilities. P&J then imports the information into customized tree data collection software that utilizes GPS to map all identified hazard trees. After hazards are identified, P&J tree crews use a series of techniques and forestry equipment to remove them, and P&J inspectors audit the tree work to confirm it has been completed to meet the specifications outlined in AEP’s forestry program.
