Utility Pole Numbering Scheme

[rmiell]

I am looking for any articles, standards or links for information on developing a utility pole identification scheme, for a small electric utilty. any help?

thanks

Rick

 

[waross]

One system is to number according to the distance from the source.
a number of 2/34 would indicate the second pole or tower in the 34th mile or kilometer from the source.

In communities using the "Hundred Block" system of house numbering, 2/34 would indicate the first pole on the even side of the street.
With hundred block numbering, the poles on the "odd" side of the street are numbered 1,3, 5, etc. The poles on the even side of the street are numbered 2, 4, 6, etc.

Bill
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"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

 

[jghrist]

The problem with Bill's method is in adding a pole later. If you have installed poles 1/34, 2/34, and 3/34 and later install a pole in-between 1/34 and 2/34, your would have to re-number 3/34 to fit the scheme correctly.

If you have a GIS system, it would be simplest to start with 1 and number sequentially in the order that you GPS the poles. You can let the GIS database sort things out.

 

[gobblerhuntr]

Hey I may be able to help. Our system is a distribution utility covering about 2000 miles of 13kV line and 22000 customers. The way we do it is start with the first pole outside the sub which is 1, then number sequentially to the end of the line. If you have to add a pole it becomes a 1/2 pole and so on. If you have a primary tap going left you number it by and L after the corresponding pole it comes off of i.e. 10L1, 10L2 and so on. Same goes for a tap going right. We also number secondary poled alphabetically starting with A and going to Z, but never have made it past G or H off one pole. We have different line "names" for each circuit outta a sub and then some longer lines off that same feeder with have a unique "name" also.

 

[lz5pl]

gobblerhuntr, that system is looking quite convenient. I will keep it in mind in case of such project.

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It may be like this in theory and practice, but in real life it is completely different.
The favourite sentence of my army sergeant

 

[stevenal]

I agree with jghrist, don't lock into a system that is not maintainable. We find that tap lines will frequently change sources, so gobble's system would also require renumbering. Our system is keyed to township range and section and quarter section. Poles in each map are numbered sequentially as they enter the system. "Poles" include underground structures also. Sorry, I have no links or standards.

 

[tinfoil]

We use the xy coordinate of the pole!

Pick a suitable point south and west of your system edge and call it 00000/00000 (number of digits determines by the geographic size of your system).

If a particular pole is 1200m north and 12345m east of this origin, then its number is 12345/01200.

We have yet to find a case where two distinct structures (as opposed to a 2-pole platform or a pole in the process of being changedout) were within ~10m (30') of another. This is well outside the location errors of most GPSs today.

A GPS can be coerced into using this 'relative' coordinate system to give you your pole 'numbers', and most have a 'locater' feature to move you to a particular real-world location given a corrdinate.

If your base-maps are georeferenced (i.e. in the 'right' place in the real world), you can get the coordinates from your CAD or GIS system.

This system is infinitely updateable as you move poles or fill in new ones.


We only physically tag a portion of our poles. At the moment, it's one-in-ten, or anywhere we have something important like a recloser or GO switch.

Other equipment, like padmounts, etc get assigned values using the same system.

 

[gobblerhuntr]

Nah we don't require renumbering cause we have line names and pole numbers, so in the event of changing sources we just go by the line name and pole number up to a particular open point and nothing changes.

 

[lansford]

It is best to tie the poles to a grid coordinate system based on GPS data. In this way it is tied to mapping software and eventually to automatic line analysis software.
JIM

 

[gobblerhuntr]

I agree with lansford, tie it to a gps grid, the only problem with that is systems like mine don't have that technology yet and are understaffed if we did have it, so we keep doing it the way we have forever.