Hello.
I recently watched a TV program where power maintenance workers were
cleaning insulators on HV lines using a helicopter and a high pressure
water cannon blasting distilled water. The commentator stressed the
importance of the water being absolutely pure. I suppose otherwise it
would
form a bridge no doubt between adjacent lines. So yes distilled water is
non-conductive: something I never knew until seeing that program. So
if the snow was formed from pure water, which is very unlikely, it may be
an insulator."
I've watched Southern California Edison Company workers washing of
insulators on the 220 kV transmission line near us. Have tanker
trucks with spray nozzle on top AND FILL UP THE TRUCK FROM THE FIRE
HYDRANTS!!!! I suspect the water is pure enough that they don't get
an arc back along the spray. I've never gotten close enough when
they're spraying [not on public streets] to see if they have a safety
ground but would think they must. Maybe someone here with power
company experience knows more.
About 60 years ago I visited an SCE hydro station at Big Creek,
CA, in the high Sierras. One of the guys who worked there showed off
by standing on a wooden stool with a screwdriver in his hand and
drawing arcs off the 200 kV line leaving the station!!!! Not
particularly dry place since the hydro turbine was only a few feet
away and room was cold and sorta damp. As a matter of interest this
was in 1948 and and Dr. Sorenson, head of the Caltech EE department
and the guy leading the field trip, told us that that particular
turbine [forget the power] had been running without a single shut down
since he supervised its installation in 1913, 34 years before. Hydro
power is great and it's too bad the tree huggers are trying to get all
of the big dams pulled down. Wonder what Tesla would think about that
movement?
Ed
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