Powerco chooses THOR POLETEST™

Customer News

Powerco, New Zealand’s largest electricity distributor in terms of network length (28,000km) and with 336000 connections is well on track in their digital transformation of asset inspections after selecting Thor Poletest™ inspection technology.

The proprietary non-destructive testing system replaces Powerco’s legacy testing methods for routine field inspection of timber poles across their network.  From Oct 2021 Powerco will deploy the technology with its field inspection contactors whilst for asset management and planning purposes, the condition and serviceability data will be analysed directly by them using the system’s ‘InsightPro™’ portal.

In selecting Thor Poletest™ as their NDT condition assessment technology, Powerco’s Carl de Haan said:

 “Powerco have approximately 30,000 wooden poles across our network (13% of our network) and continually look for new techniques to ensure they remain in good health and fit for service. Thor Poletest™ was previously trailed in late 2020 early 2021 on a subset of our wooden poles and has proven to be a repeatable and consistent non-intrusive method of testing. The system has an added advantage of being fast and easy to use…..”  

Carl de Haan CPEng
Maintenance Engineering Manager