Principle of functioning of smart solution to clean high power lines in cold climate.

Abstract

Dependency of human activities on electricity supply goes from emergency services to comfort aspects. Reliability of electricity distribution systems is a complex problem to tackle, especially when the systems are located at cold climate regions, dealing with ice accretion on the elements of the electrical systems and its consequences become a priority to be included in maintenance maneuvers in order to guaranty the energy distribution. De-icing methods must demonstrate their effectiveness in removing ice accreted on ground wires and conductors under severe environment conditions. Therefore, these methods are restricted by specific mechanical, electrical and thermal constrains related with the power line operation. Mechanical stresses imposed on the lines by stretching and torsion caused by the ice accreted on the system elements, the weight and action of the de-icing mechanism or wind effects on the structure determine the dynamics restrictions must be considered during installation as well as operation of new deicing mechanisms. Measures to insulate the de-icing mechanisms from electrical and electromagnetic perturbations are needed in order to overcome the electrical restrictions. Risk of damage or affected performance of de-icing mechanisms due to thermal shock during releasing of the high current pulse of lightning through the surface of the conductors, towers or other elements also imposes new set of constrains on the de-icing mechanism. Expansion of electrical system on remote location, with severe winter conditions along with the changes introduced by the climate changes, put extra interests on the technology development of mechanisms to prevent or remove ice from long lines with single or bundled conductors. Research has been carried out including large-scale technologies testing to address this problem. Mechanisms based on thermal effects, shock waves, cutting, or others have been already proposed. In this paper a comprehensive discussion of the existing methods and the comparison with a new proposed mechanism is presented. So, a new functioning principle of percussion will be presented, analyzed and discussed leading to new scenarios of technology development. This method represents a valid alternative that require less energy than the energy is used to melt the ice on the power lines. The implementation of this mechanism is also possible actually a design of the principle of functioning produced with support of external sources.