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You're welcome. Yes it's hard to be sure the trees are actually higher than the lines, but I think they are a little bit from my take on the perspective, though the hilly terrain might be a factor.
Originally posted by aboutface
That is one scary video my friend. I cannot even imagine how much knowledge, trust and confidence a person has to have to do this kind of work!
I want to say impossible, but I'll say highly unlikely instead. Remember those lines whip around in high winds, so they are designed to not touch when outside forces are applied be they from trees or winds. If you're talking about those two conductors in the video the man is climbing on, yes those can touch, but that doesn't cause any major problem if they touch since they are at the same potential, and in fact the worker in the video is shorting them out with no ill effects. They sometimes use multiple conductors at the same potential on lines with voltage that high to reduce corona discharge, which is an unwanted form of power loss that can make the air around the power line glow which is undesirable but not a major problem. So the worst thing that would happen if those touch is a little corona discharge meaning a very slight power loss, not anything that would shut down the circuit.
Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by Arbitrageur
If there was more than one line, it's also possible that as it fell it pushed the outside line into one of the other ones.
Actually you have both systems, AC and DC, but you're right that the DC intertie is a major conduit to California, where you send your electricity in the summer to power their Air conditioners.
Originally posted by spolcyc88
reply to post by C0bzz
Transmission is done in high voltage low current DC. At least here in the Pacific Northwest, in which most of our power generation is sent to California so the increased losses associated with long distance AC transmission are avoided.
The Pacific Intertie takes advantage of differing power demand patterns between the northwestern and southwestern US. During winter, the northern region operates electrical heating devices while the southern portion uses relatively little electricity. In summer, the north uses little electricity while the south reaches peak demand due to air conditioning usage.
Originally posted by Arbitrageur
I want to say impossible, but I'll say highly unlikely instead. Remember those lines whip around in high winds, so they are designed to not touch when outside forces are applied be they from trees or winds. If you're talking about those two conductors in the video the man is climbing on, yes those can touch, but that doesn't cause any major problem if they touch since they are at the same potential, and in fact the worker in the video is shorting them out with no ill effects. They sometimes use multiple conductors at the same potential on lines with voltage that high to reduce corona discharge, which is an unwanted form of power loss that can make the air around the power line glow which is undesirable but not a major problem. So the worst thing that would happen if those touch is a little corona discharge meaning a very slight power loss, not anything that would shut down the circuit.
Link to source?
Originally posted by Zaphod58
A few years ago there was a wildfire that burned something like 5,000 acres that when they found ground zero, they found a squirrel that had touched both wires, and shorted itself, and burst into flame. It was pretty funny, but even though they move around in high winds, a tree hitting them can put more pressure on them than the wind would.