Underground Electrical Cable Vs Overhead Lines

Following are the disadvantages of underground transmission.

Underground electrical cable vs overhead lines.

Digging around underground feeders is a disaster waiting to happen. Overhead line is a source of electrical and magnetic field where underground cables have the magnetic fields screened so only electrical fields might be an issue in this case. Safety less chance for public contact. 1 providing sufficient insulation so that cables can be within inches of grounded material.

It is difficult to find and repair the wire breaks in case of failure of system. Moreover laying or burying cost of underground lines are greater compare to overhead lines. Aesthetics underground s number one advantage. Overhead lines are nothing but a conductor laid on the top of earth by installing transmission tower.

Undergrounding is the replacement of overhead cables providing electrical power or telecommunications with underground cables it demonstrates the higher technology in developed countries for fire prevention and to make the power lines less susceptible to outages during high wind thunderstorms or heavy snow or ice storms. Safety factors of underground vs. With underground feeders you have to watch out when you are digging. To minimize a large charging current produced in high voltage cables the length of the cable should be minimized.

Overhead lines interfere with communication lines that are in close proximity have corona discharge radio and tv interference which does not happen with the underground lines. In overhead line inductor plays major roles and in underground cable the capacitor plays major role. With overhead lines you have to watch that tall trucks farm implements augers and other tall pieces of equipment don t get tangled in them. The design and construction of underground transmission lines differ from overhead lines because of two significant technical challenges that need to be overcome.

Longer life 30 to 50 years vs. Significantly less cost especially initial cost. Cost of underground cables e g. The electric field of the cable lines is fully limited by the metallic screen.

Hvdc are three times higher compare to overhead lines e g. Cost overhead s number one advantage. 20 to 40 for new underground works. Reliability shorter outage durations because of faster fault finding and faster.

Much less visual clutter.