High-powered Sunbelt

3 May 2023

Sunbelt Rentals showed some of the latest equipment additions in its electrical testing and safety fleet from the hirer’s Test & Monitoring division at the recent EnergyX2023 event in Edinburgh. 

This is clearly a very specialised and demanding market but also a busy one, given the scale of work being undertaken in installing and upgrading power supply networks across the country. 

Patrick Winter, National Business Development Manager with Sunbelt’s Test & Monitoring Division, told me that distribution network operators (DNOs) and contractors obviously own much of the equipment they need, such as fault locators and high voltage cable testers, but being able to hire extra items as required to deal with increasing workloads gives them greater operational flexibility. 

Recent fleet additions include the Chauvin Arnoux CA6472 and CA6474 earth and resistivity testers which have an adapter for pylon earth measurements, and the Megger EGIL200 high voltage circuit breaker analyser. 

Patrick said that demand is strong because of ongoing wind turbine installation and the upgrading of cabling and substation provision to accommodate it. 

Projects like the Hinkley Point nuclear power station, the Viking electricity cable link in Lincolnshire between the UK and Denmark, and the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm are also creating long-term demand for such equipment. 

Photo: Alan Guthrie 

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