Electricity consumption is projected to grow slowly and steadily as energy efficiency and reduction become more mainstream. Nevertheless, electricity prices are anticipated to increase as some utility companies receive permission to set competitive retail rates, which will likely benefit industry revenue. Public Utility Commissions (PUC) are expected to grant rate increases, fueling revenue and profit growth. Industry profit, measured as earnings before interest and taxes, is expected to increase. The growing demand for renewable energy mixed with rising infrastructural investments across the industrial and commercial sectors will positively influence the industry’s landscape.

With the aging transmission infrastructure is slowly deteriorating, the United States has seen minimal investment over the last 40 years on upgrades and new builds. Gathering and compiling information on the features and uses of the land within a proposed corridor provides the basis for selecting a route, obtaining easements, and designing and constructing a power transmission line. Blew recognizes the need for new design and rebuilding of our infrastructure as we can help support the industry with our expertise and knowledge in the design phase.

Our services include LiDAR and Aerial Mapping to collect the necessary data. We complement the aerial information with our ground-based field crews to pick up data that is critical for design including underground utilities and overhead crossings. Blew also offers Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) services when needed. We typically use feature codes that are in a PLS-CADD format or we can use a standard feature code as requested by the utility. Along with this data, we provide topographical and rectified color imagery mapping including contours in 1’, 2’, or 5’ intervals.

Additionally, Blew has the ability to create easements and plats to assist the design. We also use a system that addresses utility crossings and can create a preliminary crossing matrix upon request. Once design is completed, we offer the construction staking services and the ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys if needed in the financing stages of the proposed transmission line.

Our strategy is to provide designers and utilities with the most comprehensive assessment of information available that streamlines the CADD mapping process and we can help with the planning stages early on for the best possible route to establish the proposed corridor.