5400 King James Way, Suite 300 Madison, WI 53719, U.S.A. Phone: (608) 238-2171, Fax: (608) 238-9241 Email: info@powerlinesystems.com
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Company Profile

Power Line Systems was founded in 1984 to provide consulting services and develop engineering software for the structural and geometric design of electric power lines. Since then Power Line Systems has become the world-wide leader in software for transmission lines. We supply software to over 1600 organizations in more than 125 countries. Our customers include the full spectrum from the smallest consulting organizations, fabricators and municipal utilities to over half of the hundred largest generating utilities in the U.S. and large international leaders like BC Hydro, Hydro Quebec, National Grid, Cemig, Power Link Queensland, Eskom, Comision Federal de Electricidad and Electricité de France...

Power Line Systems started in the structural analysis arena. Dr. Alain Peyrot, our founder, spent years perfecting finite element routines for modeling cable elements and nonlinear structures. These specialized algorithms were ideally suited to systems of cables such as transmission lines and guyed communication masts. When PLS combined these algorithims with innovative user interfaces specifically designed for modeling transmission line structures the result was superb transmission line software. The power and simplicity of these programs quickly earned PLS a reputation as a leader in tools for the analysis of transmission lines. This philosophy continues today with these same routines providing the foundation of our current generation of structure programs.

Power Line Systems had the vision to see that the very same 3d model used for structural analysis could be extended to transmission lines. The simple addition of a terrain model to our 3d structure model gave us an environment ideally suited for the generation of drawings and calculations needed by a line engineer. The result was our PLS-CADD program, the most powerful and best integrated line design program ever created. PLS-CADD automates tedious calculations and drafting resulting in huge productivity gains. An engineer using PLS-CADD can quickly compare many different design alternatives to obtain the lowest cost design. PLS-CADD rapidly became the world-wide industry standard for line design.

While transmission line design software is our core business, we have done numerous failure investigations and consulting projects. We are also experienced with research projects and maintain an active involvement on ASCE committees. Few other companies can match our breadth of experience with both theoretical and practical aspects of modeling transmission lines. We offer a number of different classes where you can benefit from this experience. For years we have been co-teaching the University of Wisconsin course "Design of Transmission Line Structures and Foundations" which has been attended by thousands of engineers. In addition to these classes we can also offer custom classes or seminars on the use of our software and related transmission line topics.