January 2012 Capital Investment - National Grid

Exhibit ___ (EIOP-19)Page 23 of 684straight bus design will require less total bus work to be installed and will avoid the needto expand the substation yard to accommodate a breaker-and-a-half configuration.Thus, considerable CAPEX savings will be realized. The current construction sequencehas the project completing the 115kV work by FY16 prior to the 230kV work. The 230kVwork is expected to be completed beyond the time frame of this five year Plan.Table II-3Transmission – Substation Compliance UpgradesProgram Variance ($millions)CIP FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16 FY17 Total2011 15.6 18.2 21.0 9.0 8.1 - 71.92012 - 13.9 22.2 12.3 0.8 0.0 49.3Conductor Clearance StrategyOn October 7, 2010 a NERC Alert (Recommendation to Industry: Consideration ofActual Field Conditions in Determination of Facility Ratings) was issued stating that:“NERC and the Regional Entities have become aware of discrepanciesbetween the design and actual field conditions of transmission facilities,including transmission conductors. These discrepancies may be bothsignificant and widespread, with the potential to result in discrepancies inline ratings. The terms “transmission facilities” and “transmission lines” asused herein include generator tie lines, radial lines and interconnectionfacilities.”All recipients of the NERC Alert were required to review their current Facility RatingsMethodology for their solely and jointly owned transmission lines to verify that themethodology used to determine facility ratings is based on actual field conditions. TheCompany believes our current program will be sufficient to address NERC’s concern onthis issue. However, as more information is reviewed by NERC, they could imposefurther requirements on the industry.In response to this alert, strategy SG163 (Conductor Clearance Program for the A-10Bulk System) was approved on June 30, 2011. This presently impacts about 65transmission circuits in New York including most 345 kV and 230 kV lines, as well as anumber of 115 kV transmission lines. This program is expected to be completed by theend of FY13.The conductor clearance correction program will increase the clearance of certainoverhead conductors to address locations that may not meet clearance standardsprescribed by the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) under certain loadingconditions. The need for greater clearances has been identified as a result of an ongoingAerial Laser Survey (ALS), also known as LiDAR for Light Detection and Ranging, beingconducted on the transmission system. Clearances are in the process of beingmeasured with aerial surveys providing an accuracy which was previously available byground inspection only.II-624