As natural insulators with high dielectric strength, fiberglass composites revolutionized the handling of electricity when they first replaced wood and metal in 1959. Today, utilities in the U.S. and elsewhere are working with composite suppliers to take advantage of fiberglass for power transmission towers and distribution poles, cables and cross-arms — traditionally the province of wood and steel — as well as the aluminum conductor cables they support. Pultruded and filament wound composite utility poles and cross-arms have begun to overcome buyer resistance as electric power companies employ them primarily as replacements for aging wood poles in remote and/or extremely humid locations. One good example is RS Technologies’ (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) glass/polyurethane power poles, which have been specified by several utility companies for installation. In composite-reinforced aluminum conductor (CRAC) cables, the traditional steel strength members in cables are replaced with a pultruded continuous-fiber core, which is expected to reduce weight and increase power-transmission efficiency by an estimated 200 percent. CRAC cables may find application in infrastructure modernization projects estimated by one CRAC developer to be well in excess of $10 billion in China alone. Meanwhile, maintenance of the electrical infrastructure in North America at current levels will require an investment of $56 billion over the next decade — twice the amount presently earmarked for that purpose by utility companies. Yet CRAC cable developers contend that power needs will actually increase by as much as 19 percent in that time frame. Because CRAC cabling weighs less than steel-cored cable, they are expected to be an attractive alternative for upgrading power lines: An increased number of cables can be hung from each existing tower, increasing power transmission capability without the huge expense of erecting new towers or obtaining additional rights-of-way.