I would love to understand why HV lines don’t carry the voltage required to break the resistance to earth in very heavy rain. Is rain water pure water with low conductivity? Or are the air gaps too much for the voltage?
In: 3
Water isn’t a great conductor. Sure, it cpuls happen in theory, but it would be a very unusual fault.
What would be more likely is the wind pushing the lines together and them shorting across each other (which is different from ground). Generally they’re designed to handle swaying in the wind.
What can get even more complex is that they expand and contract with heat, because they’re metal. Snow and ice on them can also weigh them down more than you’d think. The design of them has to take this in to account so that faults are uncommon, but they absolutely do happen.
Latest Answers