Icing on powerlines

Collapsed overhead line, due to wet snow accretion.

Different structures of the power network in the cold climates are prone to icing. Overhead lines, insulators and phase conductors are vulnerable to problems caused by icing – flashover due to icing, overloading and ice shedding. In the worst case this can lead to power outages, which has a significant socioeconomical impact.

Power network structures can face both precipitation and in-cloud icing. Precipitation icing can occur in the form of freezing rain or as wet snow accumulation. Freezing rain occurs usually near northern coastal areas such as Canada, Norway, Island and USA. Wet snow accumulation has been reported to cause problems in China, Japan, Iceland and other countries in Europa. Wet snow accretion is also problem in countries surrounding the Mediterranean such as Italy, France Slovenia. Generally rime, glaze and freezing rain have been considered to possess the greatest threat for the reliability of transmission lines.

Currently there are not any effective methods against icing on power lines. Different active methods such as heating based on Joule effect or applications based on de-icing chemicals. Both of these methods does not offer effective solution against icing, because heating based system require high amounts of energy and de-icing chemicals are not environmentally friendly. Passive icephobic coatings would offer the best solution, because they do not consume energy during their operative life and does not release any harmful chemicals into the nature.

More on this topic: Powerlines, overhead lines, pantograph (railway traffic)