Restoration of a 132 kV over head transmission line affected by tropical cyclone Gonu in Oman

This paper presents a procedure for restoring a 132 kV transmission line subjected to the tropical cyclone Gonu which hit the Sultanate of Oman recently. Six steel towers have fallen due to massive water floods and strong winds in a valley called Wadi Adi, which resulted in line outage and interruption of the electricity supply to a remote substation. The six fallen towers represent a ratio of about 0.13% of the total steel towers owned by Oman Electricity Transmission Company (OETC). The main objective was to repair and operate the line as soon as possible to restore electricity supply to the substation and hence to the consumers in the affected area. The solution adopted by the OETC emergency staff was to build a number of temporary wooden poles carrying one circuit, and in the mean time, starting the procedure for diverting the line route from the valley to avoid damaging of towers due to any future flood flows. Works of the temporary wooden poles, line installations and successful re-operation have been completed within two weeks. The paper describes damaged towers, design and installation of 132 kV wooden poles, grid availability during the cyclone and most important learned lessons.