Underground Distribution
As the power industry transforms — driven by renewable generation, evolving environmental regulations, urban load growth, and growing reliability and resiliency requirements — you face the need for large-scale investment in underground distribution infrastructure.
We can help you focus your underground distribution strategy, looking for innovative approaches that address the unique challenges of designing and building underground infrastructure. We work with your team to evaluate options, prioritize initiatives, and implement efficient and effective projects and programs.
Our team is an engineering-led general contractor with project experience implementing complex and critical distribution systems amid challenging environments and changing technology. Our in-house resources include specialists in environmental issues, geotechnical challenges and construction management, all of whom can help keep projects moving toward successful completion.
We work with municipal utilities, co-ops, investor-owned utilities and developers to manage systemwide programs under a defined process that makes us a part of the client team. Our experience ranges from large and complex programs across multiple sites and multiple states to localized replacement of key underground assets.
Underground Distribution Assets
We design and build the critical distribution systems and components that establish a safe and reliable grid. Among our services:
- Ductbank and manhole installation. We provide integrated engineering and project management for tailored subsurface conduit and cable routing, whether prefabricated or built in place.
- Cable replacements. Our team takes a proactive approach to renewal programs to help avoid prolonged and costly outages. We address all aspects, including outage data analysis and prioritization, manhole inspections, cable and conduit sizing, pulling calculations, splicing diagrams, outage planning, temporary facility design, and work order creation.
- Secondary network upgrades. We help identify and assess these critical asset networks, then develop data-driven, fact-based analyses to support your planning and investment decisions.
- Renewable collector system design. Our in-house routing, planning and design teams optimize medium-voltage cable sizing and routing while balancing reliability, reactive compensation needs and system requirements. We go beyond traditional power system analysis and design.
- EV distribution infrastructure. We help plan, design and build electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, evaluating location, predicted energy use and energy cost, vehicle-to-grid integration, communication network design, budget planning, and transportation and route planning.
- Trenchless installation. With horizontal directional drilling and jack-and-bore trenchless installation, we can help you address landscape and infrastructure preservation requirements, reducing environmental impacts, restoration costs and schedule effects.
- BESS interconnection design. Our experience with battery energy storage systems (BESS) helps you enhance system reliability to meet modern distribution infrastructure needs. We assist with technology selection, system modeling, detailed design, owner’s engineering, permitting, procurement, and full engineer-procure-construct (EPC) solutions.
- Overhead to underground conversion. As more communities call for electric facilities to be installed underground, we can help you assess feasibility and identify challenges for each project site. Our team conducts field inspections, acquires real estate and permits, engages in customer outreach, sizes cable and conduit, creates construction drawings, and estimates materials and labor.
- Facility relocations. When public infrastructure projects require relocation or adjustment of infrastructure in the public right-of-way, we can assist with a streamlined solution based on organized communication and a precise schedule. Our in-house team includes professionals to address the range of experience needed for transportation, water, natural gas, telecommunications, public involvement and permitting challenges.
