High Voltage Towers Grounded?

What do you consider high voltage?

Actually all transmission (nearly all) structures are grounded and most distribution poles are as well.

Charles Perry P.E.

in article snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com, Al Smith at snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote on 6/11/04 1:30 PM:

They are grounded whether you want them so or not.

Bill

I think Charles is in the USA. It is not clear where the questioner is. In the UK Wood Pole lines up to 132 kV would only have local earths where it was necessary for operational reasons eg at switching points, or where there were cable connections

John

I believe the reference makes sense only to metallic (typically steel) towers. Wood pole lines in North America would also not have the poles (or mounting bolts, etc) grounded. However there may well be multiple grounds of an overhead ground wire if one is present.

in article tFtzc.720363$Pk3.91101@pd7tw1no, Don Kelly at snipped-for-privacy@peeshaw.ca wrote on 6/14/04 8:02 PM:

Nevertheless, cross-arm fires do get started from time to time.

Bill

--------- Sure but grounding of hardware (bolts, braces, etc ) won't prevent this. In fact the likelihood of fires will likely increase as the "wood" path is shorter. I doubt whether cross-arm fires are a serious consideration for utilities and grounding these is generally not cost effective. .