Innovative tools for better live-line maintenance

For most utilities worldwide, as Hydro-Quebec, the electric industry deregulation has established new standards in operating and maintaining power grids. Performance, reliability, availability and service ability (PRAS) are the issues that power transmission network managers and maintenance personnel have to deal with on a daily basis. Optimized maintenance programs (OMP) are developed and deployed by utilities to address these renewed requirements. For most of them, live-line work is the preferred method to deliver high quality energy services to their customer base. Live-line working rules, methods and regulations have evolved significantly since their first introduction in the past century. Similar progress will apply to the tools used for energized line works in order to perform modern maintenance. Innovative tools translate into more efficient and safer network interventions. Hydro-Quebec created its own live-line work key tools in assembling and leveraging technologies from various fields. This paper describes the evolution of the state-of-the-art live line work tools used by Hydro-Quebec that may be used as a guideline by other utilities interested in taking their maintenance practices a step further.