December 11, 2012 -- Red Eléctrica de España, S.A. (REE), the sole transmission and electricity system operator in Spain, has chosen Blom to assist with its plans to improve powerline engineering and maintenance operations. REE employs 1,800 people and had revenues exceeding 1.6 billion euro in 2011. The company’s transmission grid is composed of more than 40,100 kilometres of powerlines.

Blom is to provide detailed topography and vegetation clearance analysis of the powerline, which REE will then use for maintenance planning. In addition, Blom will provide the information needed for REE to be able to set up new, and upgrade existing powerlines. To further enhance the value to REE Blom is also working on maximising the access to the large amount of data being delivered.

All the projects are based on laser scanning and delivery of high resolution data. This allows REE to have innovative and detailed 3D illustrations of their powerlines.

REE and Blom have worked together to improve the services delivered from the laser. Deliverables will include consultancy services, as well as comprehensive models suitable for powerline and forestry engineering.

REE’s efforts to adopt these new technologies are expected to result in operational optimization, and increased safety and quality.

The vegetation analysis gives REE several benefits, including more detailed vegetation risk analysis and higher quality of the 3D data. REE expects this will result in reduced costs, better valuations for compensation to the forestry owners, improved powerline safety and reduced environmental impact.

Blom provides a range of products and services to cover customer challenges for increased efficiency and reduced risks. Blom deliver a range of products, from basic clearance studies, where only danger single trees are highlighted, to full forest mapping. Full forestry mapping includes descriptions of structure and species, conservation issues, falling tree analysis, forest growth simulations and possibility for a carbon stock evaluation.