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?

LOL! Yes, that's the stuff. I already referred back to this thread in the sub-station thread.

Here's how the site stood this morning. Looks as though the trench has been opened out and deepened:

All finished -- The cutover complete, trenches filled in, the old switchgear removed from the enclosure, and nice shiny new tags on the poles:

Well Paul,
It's cool to see the job all finished.
It has certainly given us something to talk about here.
However, one little point, have I not looked at the photo's properly or have I missed something.
In picture No.8 above it shows the cables lying in the trench.
In the final picture, there are no ground-mounted sectionalisers.
So would that mean that there is some sort of a junction in the ground under where the old S/lisers were?.
Or, were the cables merely laid in there, to be "on-site" but also "out of sight- out of mind" to thieves?.
I know it's pretty sad that you should have to spell this out to me Paul, considering that you did give some really good pictures here and still you have to explain it!.
It must be the cold here.

You're actually looking at picture #9..

look at #1, 2, 4, and 8 to see the old switchgear that was replaced..

I'm assuming that the cables seen in the trench go from the new switchgear on the poles, to the existing underground cables formerly fed by the old switchgear, and that there is a splice point where the old switchgear was.

I am also assuming that there are underground circuits fed from this switchgear, otherwise what would be the point of bringing circuits down from the pole in the first place.

That's how I would read it as well. The new sectionalizer with remote-control has just replaced the existing manual switchgear. At no time did I see any trenches dug back to the other poles, so they must have spliced where the old gear was.


Yep, the old cables uncovered in the trench in pic #5 run back under the road.

Two more labels have been attached to the new poles: "Pig unit" on the pole with the air-break switches and "Village" on the pole with the sectionalizer. I'm assuming that the former refers to the farm across the road and that this must be fed from the incoming line. The latter presumably runs down the road to Barton Turf, the village in question.

Despite taking all these photos of the actual work, I haven't really traced the lines running into this arrangement. Next time I'm out that way with a few minutes to spare I'll stop and take a closer look.

O.K., I drove out past this installation again this morning and stopped to examine things more closely. This is purely reasoning (and a little guesswork) on my part, so I could be wrong! If you think my logic is flawed, then feel free to criticize. Here's a map showing the location of the site:



I've added some markings to the first photo to make the description easier to follow.

The house you can see in the background and the trees and bushes either side of it are along the main highway. Just to the left of the photo is the little back lane,

The red arrow marks the path of the underground cables you can see in pics #5 and #9, which run back under the lane.
As you should be able to make out in the photo, there are HV lines from pole C to the lower set of insulators on pole E. These are connected via air-break switches to the upper lines on the pole. From the upper set of insulators are lines running to pole D. Thus the lines on poles C, D, and E are all connected together.

There is a triad of red HV cables running down pole D (by way of some more switches) and disappearing into the ground. No other underground connections run on poles C or E (except for a ground lead for the LV side of the pole-mount xfmr).

The lines disappearing to the right from pole E run in the direction of Barton Turf village. As you can see on the map, B/Turf is on a kind of dead-end loop road.

I've not traced the lines all the way, but I'm assuming that these terminate in B/Turf, as there would be nowhere else for them to go with just the Broads (waterways) and marshland beyond. I think therefore, it's reasonable to assume that power is being fed off to the right from pole E.

The new pole A has been labeled "Village," and this is clearly on the load side of the new sectionalizer. It seems reasonable that the cables disappearing into the ground from pole A take the output from the sectionalizer and feed it to pole D, from which it then feeds down to B/Turf village.

As C, D, and E are all linked together, power must also, therefore, being fed off to the left from pole C.

Again, I haven't been able to trace the latter lines, but they run across the fields almost parallel to the main highway, so probably just feed to odd buildings on the highway and the couple of houses and farms on the next little backlane.

If all the above is true, we've accounted for all HV lines except those underground ones. That means, therefore, that these must be the incoming feed to this site. and logically must connect to the new sectionalizer via pole B.

Where this 11kV feed comes from I have no idea, but there are 33kV transmission lines running roughly northwest from Stalham in the general direction of Worstead. There's probably a 33-to-11kV substation somewhere in the vicinity, although I've never come across it. The new pole B is labeled "Pig Unit," so maybe its somewhere next to the farm. Or does "Pig" refer to something else?

Anyway, as I figure it, power is coming in underground, and going up pole B to the new sectionalizer. From pole A it's connected via underground cxbles to pole D, via air-break switches, on to pole E. The lines from E feed down to B/Turf village, and the link via more air switches to pole C then feeds the other odd buildings back along the main road.

The LV lines from the xfmr provide 3-phase power to the farm off to the left, and two phases are run back a couple of hundred yards to the houses near the main highway.

There are a few unanswered questions in my mind though.

For a start, on the back of pole E is an abandoned cable, hacked off where it emerges from the protective cover and looking as though it's been that way for a good few years. Was this the original feed to the pole?

If you look at the manual switchgear (pic #2) which has just been removed, the sets of cables look relatively new. So did the underground feed originally go straight to pole E, then at some point the switchgear was installed to be able to isolate the Barton Turf feed?

If so though, why was the original cable abandoned?

Why is pole D there anyway? All it does is provide a transition from pole E to the underground feeder. Why didn't they just run the feeder straight up pole E, as was obviously the case at some point in the past?

One further point I noticed today was that the ground from the side of the enclosure round to pole D looks as though it's been dug recently. In fact it's indistinguishable from the newly filled trench from the enclosure to new poles A and B. Maybe they dug this trench, laid a new cable and filled it in without me noticing.

If my logic of the arraangement is correct though, pole D is fed from the load-side of the sectionalizer on pole A. Looking at the pic where the cables were run down the new poles and waiting to be connected, it doesn't look as though there's enough there to have reached all the way round to and up pole D. If you were going to run a new cable up pole D, you run a single length back to pole A, surely? Or if you were going to just splice into the old cables under where the manual switchgear was, why has the ground back to pole D been disturbed?

Ah well.... Just one of those little mysteries, I suppose!


Mike,

The name on the unit is "Whipp & Bourne." Does that mean anything to you?


{ Edited for minor typos }

[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 06-30-2005).]

Are you sure they aren't setting it up so they can feed it from two different directions?

Paul,
I've just shown your pictures to the Network Operator going off shift, as I take over from him.
The Air-Break Switches that you refer to, are in fact banks of 3 Drop-Out (Expulsion-type) HV fuses.
They are used to protect the lines that they feed and also provide Faults staff with a means of disconnection, should the need arise.
The other NO (Tony, originally from Birmingham, UK), said that your description of the work was good and also that he could not understand why the cable on Pole E was severed like it was.
We made a drawing of this installation on paper and that in itself caused much whining about the way it was drawn.
But, the whole reason for a Sectionaliser in the first place is merely to isolate a certain part (or section) of a power Grid or system, prior to re-energising after either an Earth Fault (caused by maybe a knocked over pole or fallen line) or a Short-Circuit (caused by usually car accidents after the pole gets taken out by a car and the lines fall together).
Putting it simply, it's just like an Electrician making sure that there is no load on a Switch-board, before they turn the Main Switch on. (Of course, after having meggered the installation)
As far as Tony and I could agree, Paul, Pole D is there to maintain a safe distance between the lines, where they change direction and also to allow safe access to the lines should a particular insulator fail.
Paul,
Are you sure that there wasn't a better Earthing system installed, with the upgrade of the work here?.
Paul,
We use Whipp and Bourne Sectionalisers here, they have the patent on the name "Roto-Sect" brand-name.
Just another small point in closing, the Faultsmen here are getting Transcievers installed into our trucks that will allow us to open these units (but not close them)from our trucks, it's linked into LineCAD here.
It still worries me though, what could a software fault do?.

BTW Paul here is a pic of a Pole-top ABS.



The mechanism is operated by a rod system that enables a lever down at about 2.5metres above ground level.
Closing one of these things on to a Fault will end up in a large shower of sparks!!.
That's why we have Sectionalisers.
Minimise the risk.


[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 07-01-2005).]

I suppose that's a possibility, but wouldn't there be more switchgear for that? Barton Turf village is so small anyway that I wouldn't have thought it warranted the expense for the number of homes involved.


Ah, O.K., I didn't look closely enough and I'm not used to this HV line stuff, so I stand corrected.


Quiet shift, eh? If only the guys who installed this stuff realized that their work was being discussed on the other side of the world!


I still can't quite figure this out. How would installing pole D affect clearances on the existing HV lines on poles C and E?

Pole D just provides a connection from the underground cables to the top of pole E, so if pole D was added after the original installation, why not just run the cable straight up pole E, as has clearly been the case at some time in the past?

I suppose there could have been something else there at one time. It's probably hard to follow the logic unless one knows the history of the site and how the feeds have been changed over the years.


Hmmm..... Could be I guess, but as far as I can see there's nothing to earth here now other than the secondary LV side of the xfmr. Do you run an earth for the radio gear on the sectionalizer? I don;t recall seeing any separate earth run down poles A or B for this, but I'll check again next trip past the lane.


We have those too. The handle is out of view below, but here's one which provides an overhead to underground transition as well. This one actually feeds the sub-station from which I get my power. You can see the operating rod dropping down to the left:

A few observations and possible additions.

Assuming the "highway" is the A1151 AKA Norwich road, and the road this station is on is Smallburgh Road (according to Google maps, Barton Rd is to the north of A1151, Smallburgh to the south)

The station is in the extreme NW corner of the second farm field from A1151, on the east side of Smallburgh Road. You see sort of a clearing on the
satellite photo

The farm served by the 3 phases is on the NE corner of A1151 and Smallburgh Rd, and the 2 phases each feeds the house on the property just north of that which the station is located, and the one east and across the highway from it.

The HV lines from pole C go across the fields behind that farm to supply the village just west of that farm, and supply comes Smallburgh in the northeast (which seems to fit the 33>11KV subsation in its vincinity idea) underground along the highway.

The line to Barton Turf appears to go along Smallburgh Rd, and probably turns at Mill Lane, to Pennygate and Barton Turf.
I doubt they'd run it through the middle of valuable farm land (along property lines or fencerows maybe.)

Then there is the crazy notion that the supply comes to pole C or E, and the sectionaliser sections the lines going underground somewhere.


[This message has been edited by classicsat (edited 07-02-2005).]

Wow! Many thanks for taking the time to search out the images. You're spot on with the location:

That is indeed the site. The road name is interesting though, as I've never seen a map showing this little lane as Smallburgh Rd. before.

As you can see from one of the pics, the PoCo labels this site as "Barton Rd. Sw. Station" and the old signs on the enclosure add "Barton Turf" below, which is partly why I assumed that "Village" on the new pole (A) refers to Barton Turf village. If that's not the case, then all my assumptions may be way off base and we could be into your "crazy notion" idea of power coming in on pole C or something.

If the question of the road name sounds odd, perhaps I should explain that one problem we have in England is that in many areas (Norfolk included) there are often no name signs on these little lanes. You just have to know what they're called if you don't have a detailed enough map!

That would be Cats Common, the group of houses mostly on the north side of the Norwich Rd. which you can see by scrolling one click west from your map reference. That's another place which I never even knew had a name until the signs went up a couple of years ago. It's no more than a dozen or so houses.

I seem to recall that there is an 11kV junction on poles at the intersection of Mill Lane. I know I've seen a pole-mount xfmr there, as there is a small group of houses around that corner.

I tried looking on the satellite images to pick up the 33kV lines where I know they come out from Stalham. I thought I might be able to follow them back and identify any likely spots for a 33-to-11kv sub, but I can't see enough detail.

Paul,
LOL, I think the last thing you need is some guy from the other side of the world telling you how things are in your own backyard.
I stand down.
As far as I'm concerned Paul, I can't give a reason for the extra pole.
PoCo's work in funny ways, I can tell you!.

FWIW, wee have those sort of fuses here, and are on the HV side of a service transformer, and betweeen HV segments (7200V, AFAIK). I see the odd air break switch, but only on 44KV or so distribution sysems (44KV delta used around here, substations convert to 4800 or 7200V Wye).

And yes, I got As in Geography, hence my skillas reading maps, directions, and lately satellite photos.

O.K. folks, as everyone's been trying to figure out this arrangement I thought I'd go and do a little detective work. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon, just right for a drive and walk around the back lanes and footpaths before I went to the supermarket.

Here is what appears to be the other end of the lines from pole C:



The white house is on the side of the main highway (A1151), so presumably this 3-ph xfmr feeds the small group of houses at Cats Common.

Below are the lines disappearing across the fields in the general direction of Barton Turf from pole E



These do indeed cut across the fields rather than follow the line of the road. (When I think about it, lines keeping to the edge of the road are somewhat less common here than in North America).

The first couple of poles in the foreground are the most usual type for 11kV lines. The poles you can see in the background are much less common, and have the lines in triangular formation.

You can just about see that the third pole has a spur line heading off to the right. It's actually a single-phase spur and it is this line which runs to the intersection with Mill Lane. There is a xfmr at this intersection for the few houses, as I recalled, but this HV line actually ends there:




{ Edited for minor typos }

[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 07-04-2005).]

The main 3-phase distribution lines continue in the direction of Pennygate and Barton Turf, crossing one of the little lanes, at which point there are pole-top switches with manual operation via a handle mounted at the bottom of the pole.

Here's where the line terminates in Barton Turf itself:




There are also one or two single-phase spur lines around Pennygate to feed these odd remote houses. So here's a revised map showing -- as near as I can figure -- the lines in question. I've put a little green dot roughly where Pennygate is located as it's too small to be shown on the map:



Obviously I couldn't check every pole, but I can't see why there would be any other underground cables connected anywhere along these routes, so I think it's safe to assume that the original theory is correct and that the output from the new sectionalizer feeds the lines on poles C and E.

Barton Turf is a rather nice, sleepy little village, a survivor of how England used to be! (There's even an old-style red phone box there still. ).

Click below for a few pics:

#1

#2

#3

#4


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 07-03-2005).]

Classicsat,
Thanks for the Satellite photo!.
That really puts things into perspective.
Paul,
Great pictures, I could really live in a place like Barton Turf.
Looks to be quiet enough for my liking.

I forgot to mention that there is indeed a ground run down pole A from the radio cabinet, so maybe there was a new electrode system installed.

Yes, B/Turf is nice and quiet all right. Norfolk is at the low end of the population density tables for English counties, so we still have a few out-of-the-way places. Irstead (marked on the maps above and just down the road from B/Turf) is even more off the beaten track.

The network of waterways with only limited crossing points has made for some isolated little spots at the end of dead-end lanes.