In many cases, materials that date to the first half of the 20th century remain in components on the power delivery system. As equipment fails or reaches the end of its life, new equipment is installed that generally employs incremental material improvement. But long product cycles are an obstacle to adopting new materials. Although nano engineering and other advanced techniques has offer the hope of new materials, the technology is umproven. Current silicon-based technologies not sufficiently robust to be cost-effective in many applications, and some materials are potentially damaging to the environment. This study addresses this situation by outlining EPRI’s Materials –Delivery and End-Use program, which is designed to aggressively invest in early-stage materials technologies that will be important for the future of the electric power enterprise, and by funding seed research in materials areas that will be critical in the future.

Jun 15, 2009