Prestressed concrete poles manufactured by Aveng Manufacturing Infraset’s Railway Division are being used to convey electricity in two new Boksburg housing developments, Windmill Park Ext 16 and 17.
Kiron Investments is responsible for the development which involves the construction of 840 affordable houses in total.
Aveng Manufacturing Infraset has supplied 248 concrete I-shaped poles for the electrification project. Nine metres long and rated at 7kN, the poles were planted by the main electrical contractor, Tshepang Electrical. They were installed together with the bundle conductors which supply power to the Windmill Park houses and the pole-mounted street lights.
Cedric Windell, project manager at Tshepang Electrical, says the prepaid split-metre system is being used in this project. It entails the installation of prepaid meter boxes on top of the poles and the meter boxes are connected to individual keyboards mounted in each house. Every pole-mounted meter box feeds two to six houses. To activate the system the consumer simply keys in a code purchased from the nearest council outlet.
Windell says besides planting the concrete poles, Tshepang also installed a substation and eleven mini-substations.
He says that concrete poles are ideal for this type of installation. “Although timber poles can also be specified for the support of electric cabling, concrete is the least expensive option over the long term. It doesn’t require any maintenance and will outlast timber by a margin which repays any higher initial cost many times over.”
Railway product manager at Aveng Manufacturing Infraset, Sizwe Mkhize, says that all the poles for the Windmill Park project were manufactured with earthing bars so no additional earth conductor is required to protect them against lightning.
“The poles were cast at the Brakpan factory in high-strength, high-density concrete with a smooth finish. They are functional yet relatively light in weight and this makes them easy to handle,” Mkhize adds.
Aveng Manufacturing Infraset poles are manufactured at ISO 9002 accredited factories in a range of strengths and sizes to suit most requirements in MV and LV lines. They also comply with Eskom DTC 0106 and applicable SABS and Transnet specifications.
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