OVERVIEW

The trend in electric-system management is to do more and more of the testing, repair, and maintenance work while the lines are live (energized). The reason for this is to reduce the number of times the service is interrupted, or the number of outages, as interruptions in service are called. Live-line maintenance has been made possible by the development of special tools and procedures for such work.

Under live-line maintenance, a great variety of work is included. The most common of these live-line operations are as follows:

1. Replacing insulators

   1. Pin

   2. Suspension

   3. Strain

2. Replacing crossarms

3. Replacing poles

4. Tapping a hot line

5. Cutting slack in or out

6. Splicing conductors

7. Installing vibration dampers

8. Installing armor rods

9. Phasing conductors

It will not be the object here to give detailed instruction covering the procedure of every hot-line-tool live-line maintenance job. This would be impossible because of the great variety of jobs and types of line construction and special conditions. This section is therefore intended to give the reader only a general conception of the methods and procedures employed in the most fundamental operations of live-line maintenance work with hot sticks.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE), issued IEEE Standard 516 in 1995, entitled IEEE Guide for Maintenance Methods on Energized Power-Lines, and this standard contains the following information:

1. Minimum tool-insulation distance ac energized-line work

2. Minimum tool-insulation distance dc energized-line work

3. Altitude correction factor

4. Minimum approach distance ac energized-line work air insulation

5. Minimum approach distance dc energized-line work

6. Physical aspects of...