Electric Utility Infrastructure - RPS and DER Civil/Structural Engineering Challenges

Electric utilities in California and in various other States are facing infrastructure buildout and upgrade challenges as they seek to comply with and to advance Renewable Portfolios, legislative mandates, regulatory compliance, and to integrate potential Distributed Energy Resources into the managed electric utility grid network. The issues include a broad range of project and program management aspects land acquisition, property control, environmental compliance, and hydrologic and structural design for traditional and new technology infrastructure. Some of the engineering and project management concerns that civil and structural engineers typically encounter and develop solutions for in traditional electric utility infrastructure and for newer RPS and DER technologies are presented.