Boosting Efficiency in Calculating Overhead Line Clearances

Working on power line design introduces numerous challenges, particularly when it comes to manually calculating overhead line clearances. This process is complex, time-consuming, and prone to errors. Not only does it directly affect the safety of the public and the workers involved, but it also influences the overall efficiency and reliability of the power system. 

To simplify and streamline this process, SPIDAcalc leverages modern technology that increases system integrity and optimizes overhead financial investments. As a pole line and clearance evaluation software solution, SPIDAcalc is engineered to revolutionize your overhead power line design processes. 

 Consider the following challenges and how SPIDAcalc can help you overcome them:  

 

  1. Achieving Accurate Modeling
    The first hurdle in overhead line clearances is achieving an accurate model. Your model must be a true reflection of field assets when reviewing clearances for existing pole lines or ensuring new construction designs comply with the required standards. This requires careful consideration of variables, such as pole/attachment heights and terrain field conditions. SPIDAcalc v8.0 eliminates complexity with:

      • Drag-and-Drop Functionality: Build an accurate model with ease using a straightforward drag-and-drop interface 
      • 3D Model Views: Visualize your model in 3D, offering a realistic perspective that helps prevent oversight

     

  2.  Handling Terrain Variability
    Power lines traverse diverse terrains, from flat grounds to steep hills and valleys. Calculating maximum sag conditions over such varying landscapes can be a demanding process prone to miscalculations. SPIDAcalc v8.0 offers solutions such as:

      • Automated Clearance Evaluations: Real-time evaluation of at-pole, to-ground, and wire-to-wire clearances help you review results quickly and make necessary adjustments 
      • Project-Wide Terrain Model: Complements automated clearance evaluations, helping you efficiently define terrain and environment regions with differing requirements

     

  3.  Navigating Weather Conditions
    Weather conditions significantly impact overhead power line clearance calculations. Different clearance rules account for wind, ice, and snow, all affecting the sag and tension of attached cables. With SPIDAcalc v8.0, this becomes more manageable with: 

      • Customized Clearance Rules: Allow for different scenarios, helping ensure a safe design regardless of the weather conditions

     

  4.  Reducing Human Error

Human error must always be considered. Complex calculations, missed rule applications, and manual verifications can expose a system to unknown failures, resulting in unsafe conditions. SPIDAcalc can help mitigate these risks through:

      • Robust Non-linear Sag & Tension Algorithm: Ensures precise calculations to accurately model the conductor along the entire span

 

 SPIDAcalc v8.0: A Complete Solution

 

 The latest release of SPIDAcalc v8.0 is engineered to overcome these challenges and optimize your overhead power line design processes. It enhances system integrity, ensures reliable service, reduces safety concerns, and optimizes overhead financial investments. As industry needs and challenges evolve, SPIDAcalc adapts and grows, too, with new releases delivered on a consistent basis. 

 

 SPIDAcalc in Action

 How has SPIDAcalc been implemented in power line design processes? Here are several essential ways that it is making significant impacts on organizations and their bottom lines: 

    • Adaptability and Flexibility: SPIDAcalc easily aligns with each utility’s individual needs. The software’s flexibility allows engineers to quickly design a pole line and review both loading and governing codes (NESC, CSA, and GO95), and clearances on utility infrastructure. 
    • Non-Linear Analysis and User-Friendliness: With the advent of regulatory requirements for non-linear analysis, SPIDAcalc provides a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to enter data. Coupled with a powerful finite element analysis engine, the software enables easy-to-build models with detailed output results. 
    • Enhanced Functionality and Scalability:  SPIDAcalc has helped small and large-scale utilities replace disparate spreadsheet analysis methods with a scalable, code-compliant solution. Users can model and analyze a single design in seconds or an entire pole line in minutes using SPIDA’s cloud-based analysis.
    • Streamlined Pole Analysis and Workflow Improvements: SPIDAcalc has been instrumental in streamlining pole analysis for several companies, allowing designs that may fall out of normal specifications to be approved or modified based on the results. Using trusted software enables companies to optimize processes and confidently improve their workflows for internal users and contractors. 
    • Confidence, Efficiency, and Cost-Savings: SPIDAcalc has given companies like REMC more confidence in their approach to pole design and outcomes. The user interface saves time and effort when evaluating designs. This, in turn, has allowed companies to avoid over-building or under-building designs, resulting in significant cost savings. 

SPIDAcalc: The Future of Power Line Design

 

SPIDAcalc v8.0 harnesses the power of modern software solutions to transform overhead line clearances. It reduces manual calculations, and it also streamlines and optimizes systems to boost productivity, improve safety, and increase cost savings.

Request an On-Demand Demo to experience SPIDAcalc v8.0 and see how it can revolutionize your power line design processes.

 

Fill out the form below to request an On-Demand Demo of SPIDAcalc.


SPIDA® is excited to introduce the newest release of SPIDAcalc v8.0.

Introducing SPIDAcalc v8.0

 

Gahanna, Ohio May 15, 2023 — SPIDA®, a Bentley company, the enterprise solution provider that helps electric utilities, telecommunications companies, and contractors model, analyze, and manage overhead infrastructure assets, is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated release of SPIDAcalc v8.0. This release showcases a brand new automated vertical clearance evaluation as well as terrain modeling enhancements, providing users with a complete pole line design solution. 

The new automated vertical clearance functionality assists designers in real time as they evaluate vertical clearances, enabling analysis results in seconds. Featuring a configurable rules engine, SPIDAcalc provides users with the flexibility needed to align with varying safety codes and design standards. This transformative launch lands at a pivotal moment, as the utility industry expresses intense interest in pole infrastructure stemming from investments in broadband and grid resilience initiatives. 

The enhanced terrain functionality allows users to import terrain data from user-defined data sets or from national service databases, allowing designers to better model rights of way. In addition, multiple environmental regions can be defined along a span, including custom environments, and multiple terrain layers can be used to show changes throughout the design process.  

“This release is an evolutionary step that incorporates automated clearance evaluation and terrain modeling within SPIDAcalc, positioning SPIDA and Bentley at the forefront of grid modeling and analysis of such critical assets,” said Brett Willitt, General Manager of SPIDA. 

To learn more about SPIDAcalc v8.0, request the demo webinar recording here or visit the SPIDAcalc webpage here.

Learn How To Build a Better Grid by Downloading Our eBook Today

Structure management with SPIDA provides a path forward so that instead of reacting to each crisis as it happens, you can build long-term strategies to achieve cost-efficiency and asset health.

WITH SPIDA, YOU CAN:

  • Improve your Utility Structure Management
  • Understand Risk
  • Ensure Compliance
  • Optimize your Resources

Get our complimentary eBook and find how you can prepare for tomorrow’s networks today and Build a Better Grid.

ClimaTwin Releases Climate Risk Intelligence Solution Purpose with SPIDA Integration-built for Electric Utilities

Gahanna, OH March 21, 2023  — SPIDA, the enterprise solution provider that helps electric utilities and telecommunications companies model, analyze, and manage overhead infrastructure assets, and ClimaTwin®, Climate Risk Intelligence for Infrastructure Digital Twins™, is proud to announce a software-as-a-service solution purpose-built for energy infrastructure and electric utilities, driven by deep integration with SPIDA®, a Bentley Company (NASDAQ: BSY).

Unlike other generic, climate-related applications with broad-based, top-down approaches spread across multiple verticals, ClimaTwin’s solution offers an asset-specific, bottom-up approach — designed by infrastructure professionals for infrastructure professionals. In energy infrastructure and electric utilities, owner-operators, engineers, and other stakeholders can now mitigate climate risks, assess adaptation actions, and prioritize resiliency spending for each individual utility pole, overhead line, transmission tower, or substation transformer, across thousands or millions of geographically-distributed assets in a power grid, utility network, or capital program.

ClimaTwin Co-founder and CEO Adam Omansky highlights “Now, with simple and secure integration to SPIDA, energy and utility stakeholders can perform complex analysis and gain actionable insights into future weather and climate extremes across millions of assets — visualizing and analyzing a broad spectrum of hazards, vulnerabilities, and risks over decades in the future, and hyper-localized down to the specific geolocation of each asset.”

General Manager of SPIDA, Brett Willitt explains “ClimaTwin’s deep integration with SPIDA now enables utility and telecommunication stakeholders, from owner-operators to engineers, to develop lifecycle digital twins and gain asset-specific insights into system risk and resilience to future weather and climate extremes. We’re excited to partner with ClimaTwin, their innovative solution addresses a mission-critical need for Bentley and SPIDA customers to future-proof their assets.”

About ClimaTwin

ClimaTwin® is a leading climate risk intelligence solution for infrastructure assets and the built environment.

We empower infrastructure stakeholders to mitigate climate risks and assess adaptation actions across the total asset lifecycle. By connecting complex climate models and infrastructure digital twins, our solution enables engineers, owner-operators, and governments to aggregate, visualize, and analyze disparate datasets, revealing site-specific insights at the hyper-local scale of assets. Benefits include 5-10x near-term returns and lifetime cost-avoidance by mitigating risks to systems, services, and societies.

To learn more about climate risk intelligence for your infrastructure assets, please visit ClimaTwin here.

About SPIDA

Serving the electric and telecommunication industries since 2007, SPIDA Software’s cost-effective Structure Management System is a unique platform developed to create a digital twin of utility overhead systems and a centralized portal for the coordination of activities including joint use and engineering. SPIDA is helping our customers reduce risk, cost, and timelines as they build the electric grid and broadband networks of tomorrow.

Learn more about SPIDA here.

Technical Application Consultant

Position Summary

SPIDA Software, a Bentley Systems company,  is seeking a Technical Application Consultant for the User Success SPIDAstudio group. The User Success team specializes in delivering Enterprise Asset Management solutions to the Utility Industry.

As a Technical Application Consultant, you will be a part of a team that configures Enterprise Asset Management software solutions. You can expect to work on complex challenges that will allow you to utilize your technical skills to build enterprise-level solutions and develop your SPIDAstudio skills, by contributing to both client and internal projects. You will have the opportunity to build foundational skills and competencies in relevant technologies and gain experience by participating in different types of projects.

Location: This position is remote based from a home office with a preference in the Ohio area

Responsibilities

  • Identify, interpret, and implement technical requirements.
  • Define application solutions based on client requirements.
  • Participate in workshops with clients.
  • Consult with user regarding evaluation of current systems, data migration and integration
  • Implement solutions using Groovy, SQL, JavaScript, and REST APIs.
  • Integrate to 3rd party applications using Web Services or database integrations.
  • Gather business requirements and convert them into system-level requirements, build user test scripts, develop end-user training materials, and conduct basic SPIDAstudio troubleshooting.
  • Develop documentation such as test plans, application guides and as-built documentation.
  • Deliver high-quality, reliable results while managing your time effectively.
  • Build and maintain relationships with clients you are directly working with, to ensure we are providing value, building trust, and developing a strong working relationship.

Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree in a technical discipline or relevant experience.
  • Minimum 2 years’ experience in technical consulting, support, product management or implementation/project management
  • Knowledge of Groovy or Java programming languages.
  • Experience in developing Web Services based on REST API and/or SOAP technology.
  • Strong technical aptitude and ability to communicate with ease and clarity.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Knowledge of database systems such as PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, or DB2 is desired.
  • Knowledge of version control software such as GIT is a plus.
  • Technical requirement gathering experience is an asset.
  • Requires sitting or standing at will while performing work on a computer (or any other physical requirements). The role requires communication with managers, peers and other colleagues of the company in person, and by utilizing Microsoft Teams chat, calling and meeting functions.
  • This role requires travel up to 10%

If you’re interested in this opportunity, please click below to apply.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Bentley is an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status, religion, national origin, age, or any other protected characteristic.  This commitment extends to all aspects of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, placement, promotion, compensation, and training. EEO is the Law and EEO is the Law Supplement documents provide additional information about your rights as an applicant under the law.

Bentley Policy on EEO, Affirmative Action and Pay Transparency Non-Discrimination https://prod-bentleycdn.azureedge.net/-/media/files/documents/careers/bentley-eeoaa-statement-of-policy.pdf?la=en&modified=20211005082651

Bentley participates in e-Verify / Bentley participa en e-Verify / Right to Work Notice https://prod-bentleycdn.azureedge.net/-/media/files/documents/careers/e-verify-poster.pdf?la=en&modified=20210929150033

Request an Accommodation

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, Bentley is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. We encourage you to request a reasonable accommodation if you are not able to fully use or access our online application system.   You can make an accommodation request by calling 610-458-5000 or sending us an email at disabilityrequest@bentley.com.

Bentley Systems (Nasdaq: BSY) is the infrastructure engineering software company. We provide innovative software to advance the world’s infrastructure – sustaining both the global economy and environment. Our industry-leading software solutions are used by professionals, and organizations of every size, for the design, construction, and operations of roads and bridges, rail and transit, water and wastewater, public works and utilities, buildings and campuses, mining, and industrial facilities. Our offerings include MicroStation-based applications for modeling and simulation, ProjectWise for project delivery, AssetWise for asset and network performance, Seequent’s leading geoprofessional software portfolio, and the iTwin platform for infrastructure digital twins. Bentley Systems employs more than 4,500 colleagues and generates annual revenues of approximately $1 billion in 186 countries. www.bentley.com

AEC Cafe Bunker Broadcast: Brett Willitt & Sandra DiMatteo – Bentley

AEC Cafe Bunker Broadcast: Brett Willitt & Sandra DiMatteo – Bentley

SPIDA Software’s Brett Willitt and Bentley Systems’ Sandra DiMatteo recently interviewed with AECCafe where they discussed the recent acquisition of SPIDA by Bentley, industry challenges, and DigitalTwins.

Announcing the Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure

In June 2021, SPIDA was acquired by Bentley Systems and we’re excited to announce the 2022 Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure and invite you to nominate your Grid SPIDA project for consideration.

This is an exciting and well-regarded global competition that recognizes the digital advancements in infrastructure. Since 2004, the awards program has recognized over 4,400 of the world’s most outstanding infrastructure projects.

Participation benefits include:

  • A chance to win a trip to London, all 36 finalists get a sponsored trip to present their projects before jurors, peers, and industry press.
  • Global recognition by being profiled in Bentley’s Infrastructure Yearbook, a prestigious publication distributed to media, government, and industry influencers all over the world.
  • Winners get featured in a global press release, by strategic media partners, and receive a custom, hand-made Winner’s trophy.
  • An opportunity to share your story through user presentations at Bentley-hosted events, webinars, and industry conferences.

Ready to get started?

To start the submission process complete these 3 steps;

  1. You will need to create an account on the project submission website: https://yii.awardsplatform.com/.
  2. Complete the online nomination form, followed by uploading at least 3 hi-resolution images of your project and adding any additional videos, walkthroughs, simulations, or other supporting material.
  3. Submit your project is accepting the terms of the participation agreement.

If you have any questions about the criteria, please reply to this email. or contact us at InfrastructureAwards@bentley.com

We look forward to seeing your submission

Texas Electric Cooperatives

Come check out a presentation by SPIDA Software on Pole Loading Fundamentals on September 23rd 1:40-2:25 PM at the Embassy Suites in Frisco, Texas at the 38th Annual Engineering Conference & Exhibit Show September 21st-24th.

 

Texas Electric Cooperatives represents the interests of 76 electric cooperatives with more than 3 million members throughout the state. TEC serves its members by providing products and services that help sustain cooperative businesses in the 21st century.

SPIDA Software Launches New User Support Site

Over the last few months, the SPIDA Software Support team has been busy making significant improvements to the SPIDA Support website- a complimentary resource that provides product user manuals, video tutorials, technical resources and more at the fingertips of the SPIDA user community. In addition to an enhanced and modern user interface, the new SPIDA Support site now features: 

  • Enhanced navigation and dynamic searching capabilities 
  • Detailed sitemaps and visibility into available content for each of the SPIDA products 
  • Access to ‘top 6’ quick links featuring popular support content 
  • Third-party verification reports of our analysis methodologies 
  • A series of “Quick Start” videos to help new users get up to speed 

“Our user base is growing, and we are continuously seeking ways to better support our clients,” said Kyrsten Fitzgerald, Support Lead at SPIDA Software. “With the recent SPIDA Support Site updates, product documentation is now presented in a cleaner, reorganized format, and connecting with the SPIDA support team is easier than ever – getting users to the answers they are looking for more efficiently.” 

 

About SPIDA Software

Serving the electric and telecommunication industries since 2007, SPIDA Software’s cost-effective Structure Management System is a unique platform developed to create a digital twin of utility overhead systems and a centralized portal for the coordination of activities including joint use and engineering. SPIDA is helping our customers reduce risk, cost, and timelines as they build the electric grid and broadband networks of tomorrow.

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SPIDA® Software is excited to announce that we have been acquired by Bentley Systems, Incorporated.

Bentley Systems Announces Acquisition of SPIDA,
Leader in Utility Pole Structure Management

 

To Extend OpenUtilities’ Grid Resilience Digital Twins to the Last Mile!

 

EXTON, Pa. – June 14, 2021 – Bentley Systems, Incorporated (Nasdaq: BSY), the infrastructure engineering software company, today announced the acquisition of SPIDA Software, developers of specialized software for the design, analysis, and management of utility pole systems. Founded in 2007 in Columbus, Ohio, SPIDA offers modeling, simulation, and data management software solutions to electric and communications utilities, and their engineering services providers, in the U.S. and Canada. The integration of SPIDA within Bentley’s OpenUtilities engineering software and grid digital twin cloud services will help address the challenges of transitioning to new renewable energy sources including for electric vehicle charging, of joint usage of utility poles to support broadband networks’ 5G expansion, and of modernizing and hardening the electric grid to maintain reliability and resilience.

Grid digital twins can provide utilities with immersive and engineering-accurate geospatial representations of their transmission and distribution assets, combining intelligent network and structural analysis with as-operated 3D and 4D physical reality. Bentley’s OpenUtilities grid digital twin solutions enable operators and power producers to evaluate grid trade-offs and opportunities, now spanning traditional and renewable sources and energy storage, as they provision services to meet demand. Digital twins advance asset health management by converging IT, OT, and ET (engineering modeling and simulations) to leverage infrastructure IoT data sources and predictive analytics for improved safety, performance, and reliability. With the incorporation of SPIDA, the reach of grid digital twins can now extend to the utility pole networks and structures, which deliver the environmentally vulnerable “last mile” of critical infrastructure for vital energy and communications.

Leading electric utilities including Ameren, EPCOR, Nashville Electric Service (NES), and Southern California Edison (SCE), engineer the effectiveness and resilience of their overhead systems by applying SPIDA’s software. SPIDA’s utility pole solutions include SPIDAcalc for capturing, modeling, and optimizing overhead transmission and distribution assets for structural loading; SPIDAsilk to analyze cable sag and tension design for physical and ambient properties for precise wire tension and conductor installation; and SPIDAstudio, a cloud-based platform that centrally tracks and manages the asset health and physical condition of overhead systems. “As the rapid expansion of renewable energy sources and greater demand created by electric vehicles increasingly stresses our grid infrastructure, and for 5G-enabled broadband rollout, grids’ utility poles are ‘priceless’ for sustainably advancing infrastructure,” said Alan Kiraly, senior vice president, asset and network performance, Bentley Systems. “We are very pleased to welcome our new SPIDA colleagues to Bentley Systems and to OpenUtilities, and we look forward to further integrating and globalizing SPIDA software, already known as the trusted stalwart for energy distribution engineers in their essential work to improve grid performance and resilience.”

Brett Willitt, president of SPIDA Software, said, “Our vision with SPIDA has always been to provide a complete and open solution for maintaining and improving the health and integrity of our users’ power and communication overhead infrastructure assets. Within the Bentley team, we look forward to accelerating grid digital twin solutions, which leverage our industry domain experience and incorporate SPIDA structural analyses. Existing and future SPIDA users can look forward with confidence to leveraging grid digital twins as they upgrade, modify, expand, and manage their overhead systems.” The acquisition of SPIDA Software, which is not material to Bentley’s financial results, will add 26 colleagues in North America. 7 Mile Advisors advised SPIDA’s management and shareholders in the transaction.

About Bentley Systems
Bentley Systems (Nasdaq: BSY) is the infrastructure engineering software company. We provide innovative software to advance the world’s infrastructure – sustaining both the global economy and environment. Our industry-leading software solutions are used by professionals, and organizations of every size, for the design, construction, and operations of roads and bridges, rail and transit, water and wastewater, public works and utilities, buildings and campuses, and industrial facilities. Our offerings include MicroStation-based applications for modeling and simulation, ProjectWise for project delivery, AssetWise for asset and network performance, and the iTwin platform for infrastructure digital twins. Bentley Systems employs more than 4,000 colleagues and generates annual revenues of more than $800 million in 172 countries.

 

 

 

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