CONSTRUCTION OF OVERHEAD LINES

Main Components of Overhead Lines

 Conductors: Carries electric power from the sending end

station to the receiving end station.
 Supports: Poles or towers, keeping the conductors at a
suitable level above the ground.
 Insulators: Insulate the conductors from the ground.
 Cross arms: Provides support to the insulators.
 Miscellaneous items: Phase plates, danger plates,
lightning arrestors, anti-climbing wires etc.
Conductors
The conductor material used for transmission and
distribution of electric power should have the
following properties :

 High electrical conductivity.

 High tensile strength in order to withstand mechanical
stresses.
 Low cost so that it can be used for long distances.
 Low specific gravity so that weight per unit volume is
small.
 The most commonly used conductor materials for
overhead lines are:
 Copper

 Aluminium

 Steel-cored aluminium

 Galvanised steel

 Cadmium copper
Copper

Copper is an ideal material for overhead lines owing

to its high electrical conductivity and greater tensile
strength.
Copper has high current density i.e., the current
carrying capacity of copper per unit of X-sectional
area is quite large.
This leads to two advantages. Firstly, smaller X-
sectional area of conductor is required and secondly,
the area offered by the conductor to wind loads is
reduced.
Moreover, this metal is quite homogeneous,
durable and has high scrap value.
There is hardly any doubt that copper is an ideal
material for transmission and distribution of
electric power.
However, due to its higher cost and non-
availability, it is rarely used for these purposes.
Now-a-days the trend is to use aluminium in
place of copper.
Aluminium
Aluminium is cheap and light as compared to
copper but it has much smaller conductivity and
tensile strength.
Steel cored Aluminium
In order to increase the tensile strength, the aluminium
conductor is reinforced with a core of galvanised steel wires.
The composite conductor thus obtained is known as steel cored
aluminium and is abbreviated as A.C.S.R. (aluminium
conductor steel reinforced).
The steel cored aluminium conductors have the following
advantages :
(i) The reinforcement with steel increases the tensile strength
but at the same time keeps the composite conductor light.
Therefore, steel cored aluminium conductors will produce
smaller sag and hence longer spans can be used.
(ii) Due to smaller sag with steel cored aluminium conductors,
towers of smaller heights can be used.
Galvanised Steel

Steel has very high tensile strength. Therefore,

galvanised steel conductors can be used for extremely

long spans or for short line sections exposed to
abnormally high stresses due to climatic conditions.
They have been found very suitable in rural areas where

cheapness is the main consideration

Cadmium Copper
The conductor material now being employed in

certain cases is copper alloyed with cadmium.

 An addition of 1% or 2% cadmium to copper increases

the tensile strength by about 50% and the conductivity

is only reduced by 15% below that of pure copper.
Therefore, cadmium copper conductor can be useful

for exceptionally long spans.

Line Supports
The supporting structures for overhead line
conductors are various types of poles and towers called
line supports.
 In general, the line supports should have the
following properties :
 High mechanical strength to withstand the weight of
conductors and wind loads etc.
 Light in weight without the loss of mechanical strength.
 Cheap in cost and economical to maintain.
 Longer life.
 Easy accessibility of conductors for maintenance.
The line supports used for transmission and distribution of

electric power are:

 Wooden poles

 Steel poles

 R.C.C. poles

 Steel towers

The choice of supporting structure for a particular case depends

upon the line span, X-sectional area, line voltage, cost and local
conditions.
Wooden poles
These are made of seasoned wood (sal or chir) and

are suitable for lines of moderate X-sectional area

and of relatively shorter spans, say upto 50 metres
The main objections to wooden supports are :
 tendency to rot below the ground level
 comparatively smaller life (20-25 years)
 cannot be used for voltages higher than 20 kV
 less mechanical strength
 require periodical inspection
Steel poles
The steel poles are often used as a substitute for wooden
poles. They possess greater mechanical strength, longer
life and permit longer spans to be used.
Such poles are generally used for distribution purposes
in the cities.
This type of supports need to be galvanised or painted in
order to prolong its life.
The steel poles are of three types viz., (i) rail poles (ii)
tubular poles and (iii) rolled steel joints.
RCC poles
The reinforced concrete poles have become very popular
as line supports in recent years.
They have greater mechanical strength, longer life and
permit longer spans than steel poles.
 Moreover, they give good outlook, require little
maintenance and have good insulating properties.
 The holes in the poles facilitate the climbing of poles
and at the same time reduce the weight of line supports.
RCC Poles
Steel Towers
In practice, wooden, steel and reinforced concrete poles are used for

distribution purposes at low voltages, say upto 11 kV.

However, for long distance transmission at higher voltage, steel towers
are invariably employed.
Steel towers have greater mechanical strength, longer life, can withstand
most severe climatic conditions and permit the use of longer spans.
The risk of interrupted service due to broken or punctured insulation is
considerably reduced owing to longer spans.
Tower footings are usually grounded by driving rods into the earth. This

minimises the lightning troubles as each tower acts as a lightning

conductor.
Steel Towers
Insulators
The insulators provide necessary insulation between line
conductors and supports and thus prevent any leakage current from
conductors to earth.
The insulators should have the following desirable properties :
 High mechanical strength in order to withstand conductor load,
wind load etc.
 High electrical resistance of insulator material in order to avoid
leakage currents to earth.
 High relative permittivity of insulator material in order that
dielectric strength is high.
 The insulator material should be non-porous, free from
impurities and cracks otherwise the permittivity will be lowered.
 High ratio of puncture strength to flashover.
 The most commonly used material for insulators of overhead
line is porcelain.
It is stronger mechanically than glass, gives less trouble from
leakage and is less effected by changes of temperature.
The types of Insulators:

 Pin type Insulators

 Suspension type Insulators

 Strain Insulators

 Shackle Insulators
Pin type Insulator
As the name suggests, the pin type insulator is secured to
the cross-arm on the pole.
There is a groove on the upper end of the insulator for
housing the conductor.
The conductor passes through this groove and is bound by
the annealed wire of the same material as the conductor.
Pin type insulators are used for transmission and
distribution of electric power at voltages upto 33 kV.
Beyond operating voltage of 33 kV, the pin type insulators
become too bulky and hence uneconomical.
Causes of Insulation failure
Insulators are required to withstand both mechanical and
electrical stresses.
The latter type is primarily due to line voltage and may
cause the breakdown of the insulator.
The electrical breakdown of the insulator can occur either
by flash-over or puncture.
In flashover, an arc occurs between the line conductor and
insulator pin (i.e., earth) and the discharge jumps across
the air gaps, following shortest distance,(i.e. a + b + c) for
the insulator.
In case of flash-over, the insulator will continue to act in
its proper capacity unless extreme heat produced by the
arc destroys the insulator.
In case of puncture, the discharge occurs from conductor
to pin through the body of the insulator. When such
breakdown is involved, the insulator is permanently
destroyed due to excessive heat.
 In practice, sufficient thickness of porcelain is provided
in the insulator to avoid puncture by the line voltage.
The ratio of puncture strength to flashover voltage is
known as safety factor
i.e.,Safety factor of insulator =
Puncturestrength/Flash - over voltage
Suspension type Insulator
The cost of pin type insulator increases rapidly as the
working voltage is increased. Therefore, this type of
insulator is not economical beyond 33 kV.
For high voltages (>33 kV), it is a usual practice to use
suspension type insulators.
They consist of a number of porcelain discs connected in
series by metal links in the form of a string.
The conductor is suspended at the bottom end of this
string while the other end of the string is secured to the
cross-arm of the tower.
Each unit or disc is designed for low voltage, say 11 kV.
The number of discs in series would obviously depend
upon the working voltage.
For instance, if the working voltage is 66 kV, then six
discs in series will be provided on the string.
Advantages
Suspension type insulators are cheaper than pin type
insulators for voltages beyond 33 kV.
Each unit or disc of suspension type insulator is
designed for low voltage, usually 11 kV.
If any one disc is damaged, the whole string does not
become useless because the damaged disc can be
replaced.
The suspension arrangement provides greater
flexibility to the line.
In case of increased demand on the transmission
line, it is found more satisfactory to supply the
greater demand by raising the line voltage than to
provide another set of conductors.
The additional insulation required for the raised voltage
can be easily obtained in the suspension arrangement by
adding the desired number of discs.
The suspension type insulators are generally used
with steel towers. As the conductors run below the
earthed cross-arm of the tower, therefore, this
arrangement provides partial protection from lightning.
Strain Insulator
When there is a dead end of the line or there is corner or
sharp curve, the line is subjected to greater tension. In
order to relieve the line of excessive tension, strain
insulators are used.
For low voltage lines (< 11 kV), shackle insulators are used
as strain insulators. However, for high voltage transmission
lines, strain insulator consists of an assembly of suspension
insulators as shown.
The discs of strain insulators are used in the vertical plane.
When the tension in lines is exceedingly high, as at long
river spans, two or more strings are used in parallel.
Shackle Insulator
In early days, the shackle insulators were used as strain
insulators. But now a days, they are frequently used for low
voltage distribution lines.
Such insulators can be used either in a horizontal position
or in a vertical position. They can be directly fixed to the
pole with a bolt or to the cross arm.
Fig. shows a shackle insulator fixed to the pole. The
conductor in the groove is fixed with a soft binding wire.
Potential distribution over string of Insulators
A string of suspension insulators consists of a number of
porcelain discs connected in series through metallic links.
 The porcelain portion of each disc is in between two metal
links. Therefore, each disc forms a capacitor C.
This is known as mutual capacitance or self-capacitance. If
there were mutual capacitance alone, then charging current
would have been the same through all the discs and
consequently voltage across each unit would have been the
same i.e., V/3
However, in actual practice, capacitance also exists between
metal fitting of each disc and tower or earth. This is known
as shunt capacitance C1.
Due to shunt capacitance, charging current is not the same
through all the discs of the string.
Therefore, voltage across each disc will be different.
Obviously, the disc nearest to the line conductor will have
the maximum* voltage. Thus V3 will be much more than V2
or V1.
 The voltage impressed on a string of suspension insulators
does not distribute itself uniformly across the individual
discs due to the presence of shunt capacitance.
 The disc nearest to the conductor has maximum voltage
across it. As we move towards the cross-arm, the voltage
across each disc goes on decreasing.
 The unit nearest to the conductor is under maximum
electrical stress and is likely to be punctured. Therefore,
means must be provided to equalise the potential across
each unit.
 If the voltage impressed across the string were d.c., then
voltage across each unit would be the same. It is because
insulator capacitances are ineffective for d.c.
String Efficiency

As stated above, the voltage applied across the string of suspension insulators is
not uniformly distributed across various units or discs. T
The disc nearest to the conductor has much higher potential than the other
discs.
This unequal potential distribution is undesirable and is usually expressed in
terms of string efficiency.
•The ratio of voltage across the whole string to the product of number of discs and
the voltage across the disc nearest to the conductor is known as string efficiency
i.e.,
String efficiency is an important consideration since it
decides the potential distribution along the string. The
greater the string efficiency, the more uniform is the voltage
distribution.
Thus 100% string efficiency is an ideal case for which the
volatge across each disc will be exactly the same.
Although it is impossible to achieve 100% string efficiency,
yet efforts should be made to improve it as close to this
value as possible.
Fig. shows the equivalent circuit for
a 3-disc string. Let us suppose that self capacitance of each
disc is C.
Let us further assume that shunt capacitance C1 is some
fraction K of self capacitance
i.e., C1 = KC.
Starting from the cross-arm or tower, the voltage
across each unit is V1,V2 and V3 respectively as shown.
The following points may be noted from the above
mathematical analysis :
(i) If K = 0·2 (Say), then from exp. (iv), we get, V2 = 1·2 V1
and V3 = 1·64 V1. This clearly shows that disc nearest to the
conductor has maximum voltage across it; the voltage
across other discs decreasing progressively as the cross-arm
in approached.
(ii) The greater the value of K (= C1/C), the more non-
uniform is the potential across the discs and lesser is the
string efficiency.
(iii) The inequality in voltage distribution increases with the
increase of number of discs in the string. Therefore, shorter
string has more efficiency than the larger one.
 Equalizing of Potential or
(Methods of Improving String Efficiency)
•It has been seen above that potential distribution in a string
of suspension insulators is not uniform.
•If the insulation of the highest stressed insulator (i.e. nearest
to conductor) breaks down or flash over takes place, the
breakdown of other units will take place in succession.
•This necessitates to equalise the potential across the various
units of the string i.e. to improve the string efficiency.
•The various methods for this purpose are :
 By using longer cross-arms
 By grading the insulators
 By using a guard ring
 By using longer cross-arms:
• The value of string efficiency depends upon the value of K
i.e., ratio of shunt capacitance to mutual capacitance. The
lesser the value of K, the greater is the string efficiency and
more uniform is the voltage distribution.
•The value of K can be decreased by reducing the shunt
capacitance. In order to reduce shunt capacitance, the
distance of conductor from tower must be increased i.e.,
longer cross-arms should be used.
• However, limitations of cost and strength of tower do not
allow the use of very long cross-arms.
•In practice, K = 0·1 is the limit that can be achieved by this
method
By using longer cross-arms:
 By grading the insulators:
In this method, insulators of different dimensions are so
chosen that each has a different capacitance.
The insulators are capacitance graded i.e. they are assembled
in the string in such a way that the top unit has the
minimum capacitance, increasing progressively as the
bottom unit (i.e., nearest to conductor) is reached.
Since voltage is inversely proportional to capacitance, this
method tends to equalise the potential distribution across
the units in the string.
This method has the disadvantage that a large number of
different-sized insulators are required.
However, good results can be obtained by using standard
insulators for most of the string and larger units for that near
to the line conductor.
 By using a guard ring:
The potential across each unit in a string can be equalised by
using a guard ring which is a metal ring electrically
connected to the conductor and surrounding the bottom
insulator.
The guard ring introduces capacitance between metal
fittings and the line conductor.
The guard ring is contoured in such a way that shunt
capacitance currents i1, i2 etc. are equal to metal fitting line
capacitance currents i′1, i′2 etc.
The result is that same charging current I flows through each
unit of string. Consequently, there will be uniform potential
distribution across the units.
By using a guard ring:
A good insulator should have a good mechanical
strength to withstand the mechanical load and
stresses. It should have a high dielectric strength to
withstand operating and flashover voltages.
Therefore, to ensure desired performance of
insulators, each insulator has to undergo various
tests.
Testing Of Insulators
Following are the different types of tests that are
carried out on overhead line insulators.

Flashover tests
Performance tests
Routine tests
 Flashover Tests Of Insulators
Three types of flashover tests are conducted before the
insulator is said to have passed the flashover test.

Power frequency dry flashover test

Power frequency wet flashover test
Impulse frequency flashover test
 Power Frequency Dry Flashover Test
The insulator to be tested is mounted in the same
manner in which it is to be used. Then, a variable voltage
source of power frequency is connected between the
electrodes of the insulator. The voltage is gradually
increased up to the specified voltage. This specified
voltage is less than the minimum flashover voltage. The
voltage at which surrounding air of the insulator breaks
down and become conductive is known as flashover
voltage. The insulator must be capable of withstanding
the specified voltage for one minute without flashover.
 Power Frequency Wet Flashover Test (Rain Test)
In this test also, the insulator to be tested is mounted
in the same manner in which it is to be used. Similar to
the above test, a variable voltage source of power
frequency is connected between the electrodes.
Additionally, in this test, the insulator is sprayed with
water at an angle of 45° in such a manner that its
precipitation should not be more than 5.08 mm/min.
The voltage is then gradually increased up to the
specified voltage. The voltage is maintained at the
specified value for 30 seconds or one minute and the
insulator is observed for puncture or breakdown. If the
voltage is maintained for one minute, this test is also
called as one-minute rain test.
 Impulse Frequency Flashover Test
This test is to ensure that the insulator is capable of
sustaining high voltage surges caused by lightning. The
insulator under test is mounted in the same manner as in
above tests. An impulse voltage generator which
generates a very high voltage at a frequency of several
hundred kilohertz is connected to the insulator. This
voltage is applied to the insulator and spark-over voltage
is noted. The ratio of impulse spark-over voltage to spark-
over voltage at power frequency is called as the impulse
ratio. This ratio should be approximately 1.4 for pin type
insulators and 1.3 for suspension type insulators.
Performance Tests Of Insulators

Temperature cycle test

Puncture voltage test
Mechanical strength test
Electro-mechanical test
Porosity test
 Temperature Cycle Test
In this test, the insulator under test is first
heated in water at 70° for one hour. Then the
insulator is immediately cooled at 7° for another
hour. This cycle is repeated three times. Then the
insulator is dried and its glazing is thoroughly
observed for any damages or deterioration.
 Puncture Voltage Test
The purpose of this test is to determine the
puncture voltage. The insulator to be tested is
suspended in insulating oil. A voltage is applied
and increased gradually until the puncture takes
place. The voltage at which insulator starts to
puncture is called as puncture voltage. This
voltage is usually 30% higher than that of the dry
flash-over voltage for a suspension type insulators.
Mechanical Strength Test
In this test, the insulator under test is applied by
250% of the maximum working load for one
minute. This test is conducted to determine the
ultimate mechanical strength of the insulator.
 Electro-Mechanical Test
This test is conducted only for suspension type
insulators. In this test, a tensile stress of 250% of
maximum working tensile stress is applied to the
insulator. After this, the insulator is tested for 75%
of dry spark-over voltage.
 Porosity Test
In this test, a freshly manufactured insulator
sample is broken into pieces. These pieces are then
immersed into a 0.5% to 1% alcohol solution
fuchsine dye under pressure of 150 kg/cm2 for
several hours (say 24 hours). After that, the pieces
are removed from the solution and examined for
the penetration of the dye into it. This test
indicates the degree of porosity.
Routine Tests Of Insulators

 High voltage test

 Proof load test
 Corrosion test
 High Voltage Test
This test is usually carried out for pin insulators.
In this test, the insulator is inverted and placed
into the water up to the neck. The spindle hole is
also filled with water and a high voltage is applied
for 5 minutes. The insulator should remain
undamaged after this test.
 Proof Load Test
In this test, each insulator is applied with 20%
in excess of working mechanical load (say tensile
load) for one minute. The insulator should remain
undamaged after this test.
 Corrosion Test
In this test, the insulator with its metal fitting is
suspended into a copper sulphate solution for one
minute. Then the insulator is removed from the
solution and wiped and cleaned. This procedure is
repeated for four times. Then the insulator is
examined for any metal deposits on it. There
should be zero metal deposits on the insulator.