The Winning Submission:

    The product we have come up with is called the Resistive Conductor Adaptors (RCA) which can be used by cities, power companies, and telecommunication companies. The RCAs we have come up with largely act the same way in which the rear windshield of a car works to clear snow, ice, and fog to improve visibility. This is often done through the installment of small low current electrical cables across the rear windshield and attached using a mixture of resin and adhesive. These cables then, when a button is pressed on the driver’s end, activate and begin to send a small electrical current across the windshield to clear any obstruction. 

    Our product aims to do the very same for above ground utility cables across not just the State of Texas but across the United States and even world to help combat and provide a solution in the case of cold temperatures. Currently, one of the largest threats to the presence of infrastructure above ground is buildup from ice and snow. In the case of telephone or electrical cables that are suspended above ground, this problem becomes exacerbated greatly as the weight from snow can cause these lines to sink lower or even collapse entirely. When this happens it poses a threat to operations of utility companies, customers in their homes and businesses, and especially people walking or driving by on the street who now have a live electrical wire on the ground. To combat this, we take a similar idea at melting any ice or snow by essentially creating a sleeve in which utility companies can place over their cables. This sleeve is coated in a spiral of a small low voltage wire that when activated by a utility company creates a small electrical current to produce enough heat to melt any ice or snow from the utility cables. This is unique to the current purpose of utility cables in Texas which are built with the opposite intention of lowering the amount of heat produced. This is because in the summer, many parts of Texas become incredibly hot and when electrical cables manage to become too hot then they can overheat and catch fire which causes even worse outcomes. We on the other hand counteract this problem by being an addition to utility cables that maintains the cooling properties and designs that are currently used throughout southern regions like Texas whilst likewise maintaining the ability to heat itself in the case of extremely cold weather. 

    Our product effectively gives communities and companies the best of both worlds. For the impact of the RCA, this gives groups the ability to have the best of both worlds. This is because of preexisting Joule Heating principles where electrical energy upon encountering resistance creates heat. The same principle is used in power cables right now because power cables in their effort to lower resistance as much as possible and as a result lose as little power, also generate very little heat. Our addition to power cables allows companies to heat up their lines with an addition specifically designed to maximize resistance and heat whilst maintaining the principles of resistance avoidance in the electrical cable itself. 

    In our evaluation of sustainability, we found that this product would ultimately fall right in line with regular long term maintenance of power lines because of the fact that the National Grid Group says that power lines typically at their longest point last about 80 years whilst their insulators and fittings last about 40 so throughout the line’s lifespan it goes through one cycle of maintenance. Meanwhile, aluminum wiring which we will be using in this case on the outside of our sleeve, if properly installed by the consumer, has the potential to last for about 50-80 years as well which means that in the worst case scenario, these wire covers are being replaced alongside the regular maintenance of the electrical wires and in the best case, these covers last for the same time as the electrical cables themselves. This means that apart from installation, there is very little extra long term incurred cost on the end of the utility company while having the ability to protect their assets. 

    As for the feasibility of the RCA, we predict that the cost of this addition to be $3.00 per 100 feet of EC (electrical conducting) aluminum wire sleeves and it will be attached onto pre-existing infrastructure meaning that as utility companies will be doing regular maintenance and construction of new lines, they will easily be able to add on to any cables and lines that they need to add it to. As for the usage of our product, it will once again work alongside pre-existing infrastructure with no interruptions. Since these wires are already connected with the electrical wires and grid, they can power themselves directly from the electricity provided from the electrical grid traveling in the cables that they’re heating. The spiral based design of the EC Aluminum wires as well ensures that there are no vulnerabilities in the electrical transmission process as the wires on top effectively manage to melt snow. These very same wires also spiral and run below the electrical cable and by doing so manage to maintain consistent heat below the electrical cables to make sure that any freezing rain or melted snow is not accumulating on the bottom portion of electrical cables and producing heavy ice or icicles. 

    The way the company will price the RCA is at $3.00 per 100 ft which will be directly sent to power and utility companies across Texas and the United States. These companies then use their own equipment and employees will install these adaptors onto their electrical lines in communities across the nation. Then once temperatures begin affecting power lines below freezing, then these utility companies have the ability to activate the electricity to these wires just like in a car and maintain a good temperature on their cables.