Application of Statistical Methods in the Design and Uprating of Wood-Pole Transmission Lines

The electrical insulation design of a proposed Northern States Power Company 345-kV wood-pole transmission line was examined, using statistical methods employed in the METIFOR program [1], introduced in 1964. These techniques, when incorporated with other methods of analysis, gave a predicted outage performance evaluation for this new line, which would interconnect Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., with Milwaukee, Wis., and Chicago, Ill. The techniques employed also afford a more comprehensive analysis of the performance of existing lines when uprated to a higher voltage class.