Recent Overhead Transmission Line Technology and Environmental Measures

CIGRE 2023 Sendai Colloquium, Japan, 3-7 October 2023
Recent Overhead Transmission Line Technology and Environmental Measures
Design & Development of Floating Dead end insulator assembly for minimizing the
Environmental impact of Transmission lines
PS1: Sustainable OHL, Environment and Planning (joint PS with C3)
Ashish kumar SINGH Chandra KANT Abhay KUMAR Kailash RATHORE
POWER GRID CORPORATION OF INDIA LIMITED

INDIA
[email protected]
At present, the Indian transmission network consists of around 11 lakh circuit kms, criss-crossing the entire
length & breadth of the country and its diverse geography. Since, transmission lines primarily traverse away
from cities & dense habitations, they mainly encounter agricultural fields, plantations and forests. Therefore, in
order to ensure sustainable development of transmission systems, it is pertinent to devise ways and means for co-
existence of transmission lines along with the existing plantations & forests.
At times, use of land below transmission lines are also altered. Such as the agricultural fields hitherto used for
paddy or wheat cultivation are eventually converted into cash crop plantations such as vineyards, apple orchards,
etc. This may lead to infringement of ground clearances or minimum horizontal and vertical clearances. This
may not only affect reliability of transmission line but may also be a safety hazard.
In one such case in POWERGRID, apple orchard has been infringing an existing 400kV D/C transmission line
and incidents of tripping of line due to Line-Ground fault have been encountered. The transmission line section
is approx. 3.6 km with nine (9) nos. of suspension towers. The affected stretch is lying in midst of the section.
Various alternate remedial measures were explored such as use of low sag conductor, replacement of existing
towers with higher extension towers, etc. In view of the long transmission line section, replacement of the
existing conductor with low sag conductor was a cumbersome as well as a costly exercise. Further, as both the
towers are lying in dense apple orchards, replacing the existing towers with higher extension towers would have
resulted into cutting of several apple trees to make space for casting of new foundation, erection & stringing.
Also, this would have led to significant outage time, which would have not only affected revenues of the
transmission utility but would have also severely impacted power flow in this region.
Affected Span
To resolve the above issue, use of floating dead-end assembly are contemplated for the first time in the country.
Floating dead end assemblies are insulator strings that do not terminate on towers but are suspended from tower,
similar to a suspension insulator string. By use of floating dead-end assembly, conductor can be terminated at the
suspension tower, without any increase in the loads of the suspension tower. Further, as the insulators are placed
in tension position instead of suspension position, conductor can be lifted further up and additional ground
clearances can be obtained. Since, in conventional tower designs, placement of conductor is decided by the live
metal clearances, adequate phase-to-phase clearances are often available. This, leaves ample room for use of
floating dead end assemblies, without compromising on system performance. A typical floating dead end
assembly is shown below:-
In the instant case, floating dead end assembly has been contemplated for use in middle as well as bottom phase
of the two adjacent towers of the affected span. Further, the existing V-string in these two phases shall be used to
hold the jumpers of floating dead end so as to avoid its infringement with tower body under swing conditions. In
the bottom phase of the affected span, alongwith the floating dead-end assembly, the existing Twin ACSR
Moose conductor is to be replaced by Twin AAAC conductor having reduced maximum sag. The selection of
AAAC conductor has been done in such a manner that the transverse, vertical as well as longitudinal loads of
tower remain same as that with the earlier ACSR Moose conductor. Also, the tension in the AAAC conductor
under everyday conditions should match that of the ACSR conductor so that the floating dead-end assembly
remains in suspended position and there is no undue longitudinal load on the

suspension tower. The cumulative use of floating dead-end assembly and AAAC conductor, would result into an
increase in ground clearance by more than 5 meters at the mid-span. In this way, cutting of apple trees can be
avoided and the existing transmission line can co-exist with the underlying apple orchards. Moreover, the above
exercise shall not involve any major expenses in terms of new tower or foundation and shall only require four
nos. of floating dead-end assembly, approx. 2 km of AAAC conductor and minor modifications in V-string &
tower crossarms.
Floating dead end assembly
Jumper connection
The paper showcases use of floating dead-end assembly in place of suspension assembly for successful
restoration of transmission line clearances and enabling sustainable co-existence of transmission lines with
existing plantations/ orchards. The paper describes in details, the design criteria for floating dead-end assembly
& selection of alternate conductor, modifications in the V-insulator string, strengthening of cross-arms, etc.
carried out in the above case.

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CIGRE 2023 Sendai Colloquium, Japan, 3-7 October 2023

Recent Overhead Transmission Line Technology and Environmental Measures

PS1: Sustainable OHL, Environment and Planning (joint PS with C3)

Ashish kumar SINGH Chandra KANT Abhay KUMAR Kailash RATHORE

POWER GRID CORPORATION OF INDIA LIMITED

remains in suspended position and there is no undue longitudinal load on the

Floating dead end assembly

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