Conductors for Lines

The sizing of conductor must depend upon the load it is expected to serve and other factors, such as capacity required in future. Or else conductors/cables might also be considered wherever appropriate. The total owning cost for the life of the line should be considered for evaluation of an alternative. The subsequent options are available:

1. Aerial bunched cable (ABC): ACSR is the most hugely used conductor for lines constructed through conventional utilities.  The use of ABC has the subsequent advantages:

- Maintenance costs related along with these types of cable are reduced since clearing tree branches from the lines need not be as frequent.

- These kinds of conductors are safer than bare conductors.

- With ABC, it is difficult to tap the line without special piercing connectors because of the insulation and the fact in which the conductors are bundled.

2. Armoured cable on pole: It is experienced which stringing an armoured cable on a messenger wire gives better security against hooking.

3. Proper sized conductor in neutral: In distribution systems, a smaller size of neutral conductor is frequently used. This makes the neutral wire susceptible to high loss and breakdowns. The recommended practice is to use a conductor of the similar size as in which of the phase conductor. In case of cabled systems, the recommendation is to use a 4 core cable rather than a 3½ core cable, as the neutral must have the similar current rating as in which of the phase wires.