ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades More remote control

You may remember we were talking about remote-controlled switching a while back. It seems as though the PoCo in my area is installing more and more of this equipment, and I just happened to catch this work-in-progress on a road a few miles from home.

Four of these poles were already in place to provide a change in direction of the HV lines and for the pole-mount xfmr which feeds a farm and a couple of houses off to the left:




There is also some existing switchgear in the enclosure:




The two new poles were already fitted with the basic hardware when I saw this on Friday morning, but not yet wired up:




And a trench has been dug where, presumably, the remote switch will be wired to the existing circuit:

Saturday, and some of the wiring is in place:

Paul,

Great pictures!

As I was looking at these images, a funny thought came to mind ... and I am sure you have had the same too;
"What the People watching you take pictures of this stuff, must be thinking"

I usually see puzzled expressions on Peoples' Faces - kind of a "What is so interesting over there" expression!

Anyhow, the H.V. Conductors appear to be Insulated with a Green Colored type of Jacket, which is not very common in my area.
Some older 2 KV through 4 KV Primary feeders have "The Remains Of" what appears to be Impregnated Cloth weave covered Rubber Insulation.

Scott35

BTW, what's the Nominal / rated Voltage in these pictures - something in the 10 KV range?

Yep! This lot is located on a side road a couple of hundred yards from the main highway, but a couple of people did drive by and slow down to see what I was doing there.

Oh, and while I was taking the photos in this thread somebody did ask me what I was doing!

The green seems to be common around switchgear installations these days. Out here by the coast our conductors turn green from corrosion after a few years anyway!

Good call -- It's 11kV (phase-to-phase).

This is the standard level for local distribution throughout the country. There is a very tiny percentage of places in some regions which still have some 6.6kV systems, but they're quite rare now.

The secondary lines are 415Y/240.

Speaking of 6.6kv Paul, I have a couple of photos of the local 33-6.6kv Substation transformer, where would be the best place to post them? [and yes, I got those *looks* too]

Interesting pictures you have there Paul.
Just a little question about them cables in Pic No.5, are they buried at Regulation Depth?.
That green tailing wire has been here for a wee while now, I've never got close enough to it to have a decent look at it.
I think it just has a different sheathing on it.
One thing I've never seen before though Paul, is them Pin Insulators on the new steel cross-arms.
It actually looks like the wire connection is integral to the Insulator body and the wire is crimped in a sleeve-type arrangement.
Well I never thought I'd ever see flex used on a pole, but there you have it in Pic No.6 between the step-down transformer and the reciever unit.
Are them two new poles covered with creosote?.
It's just that they look a bit darker than most treated poles I've seen recently.
BTW, that brand of Sectionaliser is called a Roto-Sect.
Should be good to see when it's finished, any chance of some "after" pics?.

Here in non-U.S. would be fine, or I could post them in the general photos area. If you want to have the images on ECN's server, just e-mail them to me to upload and I can let you have the URLs so you can link them into your post.


I would think so, or something similar. I didn't pay special attention, but next trip past the site I'll get up close to the poles for that tell-tale odor to confirm!


For sure -- I was planning on snapping some more pics when I was out that way in any case. One of the main highways in the area is only about 200 yards from this site and I drive by quite often.

Here is how it stood around 8:30 this morning. It looks as though the pole-top wiring is about done now:


New cables waiting to be connected into the circuit:



By the way, I have no idea about regulation depth for these cables. We'll have to wait and see what changes (if any) are made to the fencing once this is complete.

That's how I had actually en-visioned the finished installation Paul.
Don't worry about that question Paul, I just thought that they looked a little on the shallow side, considering they are 11kV single cores.
That hole in your original post would have been excavated to identify the position of the existing cables, before any further trench-work was carried out.
Striking 11kV can do all sorts of nasty things.

BTW Paul,
I was talking to the Storeman at work yesterday and he said that that green wire has a special type of UV,Moisture and Mould resistant XLPE insulation on it.
Ordinary XLPE breaks down in sunlight and it isn't that hot around moisture either.
He couldn't tell me why it's green though, red would be better.

Paul, in the bottom picture, coiled up against the fence, is that more of the red corrugated HV cable Trumpy was asking about with regard to the substation thread?