Problem
Utilities, including American Electric Power (AEP), are experiencing a surge in high-speed internet deployments, leading to a significant increase in attachment requests. From 2020 to 2024, AEP saw a 12-fold rise in pole attachment requests. This influx is putting immense pressure on utilities as well as challenging distribution system resilience.
Solution
To address the surge of Third-Party Attachment Requests and the effect on the distribution system, AEP put Distribution Design Studio (DDS) at the core of their Joint Use Attachment Make-Ready Engineering to meet today’s challenges.
DDS streamlines pole attachment design workflows by leveraging information from existing systems and third-party applications and allowing users to analyze and compare facilities in “existing” and “proposed” states to properly allocate make-ready construction costs.
AEP’s Strategy and Key Actions:
- Precise Field Data Collection: As part of the make-ready engineering process, geo-positional and pole attachment data is collected in the field by contract designers to ensure an accurate “as-is” baseline for the make-ready engineering process.
- Eliminate Uncertainty: AEP requires attaching companies to provide engineering attributes such as messenger wire being used, cable weight, diameter, design zone limiting tension.
- Integrations with AEP and Third-Party Systems: AEP worked with GSI to seamlessly integrate DDS with their existing systems and with external field collection tools that capture geo-positional and pole attachment data.
- Make-Ready Work Standardization: AEP requires contract designers to use DDS to ensure that all Make-Ready work is engineered according to AEP specifications and that all costs are properly allocated and justified.
- End User Training: To ensure contract designers could fully leverage DDS’s functionality, AEP partnered with GSI to launch an interactive virtual training initiative for over 300 contract designers nationwide.
END RESULT
American Electric Power (AEP) has risen to the occasion, crafting a streamlined joint-use attachment process that satisfies the digital demands of communities without sacrificing grid integrity.
DDS helped AEP standardize their third-party attachment process while supporting AEP’s focus on safety, engineering excellence, and compliance/efficiency to adhere to NESC and local rules while meeting FCC timelines.
