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The
fundamental benefits of the PPL
Field Liner proposition are that it
delivers clear, irrefutable and
calculable financial and
environmental benefits to all
stakeholders – Utility Companies,
Utility Consumers, Society and our
Environment as a whole. On this page
of our website we explore the
Economic and Environmental impacts
of the PPL Field Liner, a
revolutionary development that we
believe offers the perfect mix of
economic and environmental benefits
for all stakeholders.
Economic Benefits
Utility Poles represent a
substantial part of the asset base
of Electric Utilities, probably up
to 50%, and so it is of crucial
importance from a corporate and
consumer perspective that all
possible is done to maximise the
safe service life and reduce the
costs associated with the deployment
of this crucial asset.
The economic benefits of the PPL
Field Liner derive from extending
the safe service life of new wood
Utility Poles by reducing the
incidence of failure due to fungal
decay and/or subterranean
Formosan termite
attack. There is a further economic
benefit accruing from the potential
reduction in inspections and
remedial treatments during the
lifetime of a Utility Pole. The PPL
Field Liner is an effective
‘biotechnological device’ that will
substantially increase the lifespan
of any Utility Pole by protecting it
from fungal and insect attack far
more effectively than a preservative
treatment alone could achieve.
Extensive testing has proved that
the addition of a PPL Field Liner to
a Utility Pole will stop fungal
decay, prevent termite attack and,
by avoiding premature failure,
extend the service life of a PPL
Field Lined pole. It is believed
that the addition of a PPL Field
Liner will extend the average life
of a wood Utility Pole from 30 – 40
years to at least 80 years but
obviously, at this early stage, this
is a projection rather than a proven
case. Research taking place on Field
Lined Utility Poles in service with
Seattle City Light are expected
to prove that, as been clearly
proved before in tests, Field Trials
and poles in service with
Eskom, poles fitted with Field
Liners do not rot whereas poles
without Field Liners do.
The logic of the case for Field
Liners, indeed ‘barrier systems’ in
general is inescapable. Whilst the
roots of trees are designed for
ground contact, the trunks of trees
are not !. Preservatives of given
formulations, retention levels and
penetrations will protect wood in
ground contact for specified periods
of time and the
AWPA and the timber industry as
a whole has been instrumental in
defining these standards, prolonging
the service life of ground contact
timber to the benefit of all
stakeholders. However, to expose the
ground contact element, the butt
end, of a Utility Pole to the
organisms in the soil is to invite
premature decay at or around the
groundline and to encourage
infestation by veracious
Formosan termites.
It is a proven fact that
preservatives in pressure treated
Utility Poles leach from the pole
and that their effectiveness is
therefore reduced. Over time,
preservative retention levels fall
and this is when the decay begins or
the termites attack. To implement a
barrier between the pole and the
soil is to prevent this occurring –
if preservatives do not leach,
retention levels are maintained and
the protection afforded by those
preservatives endures. Decay is
prevented, termites are repelled.
PPL Field Liners are also proven to
improve as well as maintain
preservative protection in poles.
Unable to leach out of the pole,
preservatives progressively leach in
to the pole, increasing penetration
levels. In full length treated
poles, preservative that would
migrate down and out of the butt end
of the pole are retained there,
increasing the protection for the
ground contact area most likely to
suffer premature decay.
With fewer poles decaying and
service life extending, it is
possible for a Utility to re-examine
their Inspect and Treat programs. As
practical experience proves to PPL
Field Liner users that lined poles
perform better than unlined poles,
the need to inspect lined poles will
diminish, as will the need to
remedially treat those poles, bring
a clear and calculable benefit.
Reducing Utility Pole failure rates
is of clear interest and economic
benefit to all Utilities. With the
full cost of a pole replacement
being in the region of $5000 and
average failure rates varying
between 1% and 5% (depending on
various factors such as wood
species, environment, termite
activity etc) then a Utility with
say 10,000 poles is spending
$500,000 a year replacing failed
poles at even the lowest average
failure rate of 1%. To provide Field
Liners for all new poles being set
by this utility would cost no more
than $15,000 a year. The Economic
Benefits are clear.
PPL Field Liners Prolong Pole Life
Environmental Benefits
The environmental benefits of the
PPL Field Liner are equally clear.
By doubling the life of a Utility
Pole, there is a long term and
sustainable requirement for far
fewer replacement Utility Poles.
This leads to lower energy
consumption requirements at all
stages of the life cycle of a
Utility Pole and to reduced waste
and pollution.
The fundamentals of the life cycle
of a Utility Pole are that it starts
as a tree, this raw material is then
processed, the pole itself is
manufactured, it is then set in
place, it is serviced during it’s
lifetime and ultimately it is
removed and disposed of. Each and
every stage of this process consumes
energy and produces pollutant waste.
Importantly, the environmental
benefits of the PPL Field Liner are
immediate for one simple reason,
namely, PPL Field Liners Prevent
Preservatives Leaching.
The preservatives that are used in
pressure treating wood Utility Poles
are toxic by their very nature and
many of the preservatives commonly
used are actually banned for
domestic and other purposes by the
EPA, their continued use in pressure
treating Utility Poles being allowed
as an exception to the general rules
and justified on the grounds of
risk/benefit.
There are a number of
AWPA approved chemicals used to
pressure treat Utility Poles and the
use of particular preservatives tend
to be the choice of the individual
Utilities concerned. Historically,
the most commonly used preservatives
were Creosote, Chromated Copper
Arsenate (CCA), and
Pentachlorophenol (Penta) but
increasingly Utilities have moved
towards alternative preservatives
such as Copper Napthenate. Certain
common preservatives have been
‘threatened’ with being banned and
indeed, a number have already been
banned in the USA, Europe, Asia and
elsewhere.
It is not the intention of
Protective Packaging Ltd to enter
into the political fray as regards
preservatives but it sufficient to
say that at on one side of the
argument, environmental pressure
groups argue that wood Utility Poles
are poisoning the environment with
carcinogenic, toxic chemicals (as
argued on websites sites such as
NCAMP ) and on the other
side, organisations such as the
North American Wood Pole Council
argue that Wood Utility Poles are
the most economical, renewable and
least polluting of all pole
materials. The arguments are
classically ‘Poles apart’.
The reality is that the needs of
both sides of the spectrum would be
best satisfied by the installation
of PPL Field Liners on all new wood
Utility Poles brought into service.
PPL Field Liners have been proven to
prevent preservatives from leaching
from the pole which is good for the
pole and good for the environment.
The PPL Field Liner’s barrier to
leaching, achieved by the unique
qualities of the laminate material,
means that the preservative stays
where it is meant to be, protecting
the wooden pole rather than
polluting the environment.
In the new
AWPA P20 standard for Barrier
Protection Systems, it is envisaged
that when such systems have become
fully accredited through the
prescribed testing procedures, the
preservative retention levels
required for Utility Poles can be
lowered to Use Category 3B levels.
What this means in practice is that
less preservative would need to be
pressure treated into the pole to
achieve the same level of protection
as is required today without a
Barrier Protection System. Looking
forward, it is also believed that
the success of Barrier Protection
Systems, such as the PPL Field
Liner, will give rise to the use of
less toxic preservatives as their
efficacy will be improved.
Classically, waterborne
preservatives are not widely used
for Utility Poles because they do
not fix as well as ‘traditional’
oil-borne preservatives but with
successful Barrier Systems, the
preservative does not need
necessarily to fix to the same
degree as it is prevented from
leaching by the PPL Field Liner
itself.
Within this website we present ample
evidence to support the claim that
PPL Field Liners prevent
preservatives from leaching. Our
earlier version Field Liners are
currently in a long term test with
EPRI
and we are currently
commissioning further tests with our
latest One Piece Field Liner. It is
clear from all the photographs
provided that PPL Field Liners do
prevent preservatives from leaching
and it is an inescapable conclusion
that by doing so, PPL Field Liners
protect the pole, protect the
environment and prolong pole life.
Combining all these factors and it
is clear that the PPL Field Liner
delivers clear, irrefutable and
calculable financial and
environmental benefits to all
stakeholders – Utility Companies,
Utility Consumers, Society and our
Environment as a whole.
PPL Field Liners Prevent
Preservatives Leaching
Conclusion
The PPL Field Liner makes a positive
economic and environmental
contribution at all stages of the
lifecycle of the wooden Utility
Pole. By increasing the serviceable
life of a wooden Utility Pole, the
PPL Field Liner means that fewer
trees will need to be utilised to
provide replacement Utility Poles in
the long term. To double the life of
the Utility Pole is to halve the
environmental impact per annum.
Clearly, these will be long term
benefits but this is true of most if
not all environmental initiatives
that collectively can change the
course of the future.
Better protected by virtue of the
PPL Field Liner from fungicidal and
insect attack, service cycles can be
extended which means that costly
maintenance is offset. Furthermore,
as preservative will not be lost
through a leaching process, the cost
of applying remedial chemicals in
the field will fall.
Environmentally, the PPL Field Liner
reduces waste and pollution. Fewer
trees will be needed in the long
term and hence the waste and
pollution caused by the pole
acquisition and manufacturing
processes will be reduced.
By preventing the leaching of toxic
chemicals into the soil and
groundwater around the Utility Pole,
the environment will benefit
directly whilst the Utility Pole
itself will remain better protected
by virtue of retaining the
preservatives that current leach out
into the soil.
It is not a case of whether a
Utility company can afford a PPL
Field Liner but rather whether they
can afford for a Utility Pole not to
have one !
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