Importance of maintaining the Power Transmission Lines

Power transmission is a complex network of transmission lines spread across the length and breadth of country and these transmission lines serve as the lifeline when it comes to supplying electricity to the end users. The maintenance of these expansive networks is no small task and it takes a lot of planning and effort to keep these Power Transmission Lines in supreme condition to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity. The maintenance of these lines requires round the clock monitoring and prompt action on any faults that occur. The transmission lines are categorised based on the voltage of electrical current passed through it, the main categories are Low voltage, Medium voltage and High voltage transmission lines. Most of the transmission of electricity is done through overhead transmission lines and it is only under exceptional circumstances that the high voltage transmission lines are laid underground.

The transmission network at most of the places in India is old and is in need of reconductoring, the age of the transmission lines also causes severe losses of electricity during transfer, this makes it all the more important to focus on maintenance of transmission lines. The cost of putting up new structures and a new transmission line is very high when compared to reconductoring hence it is preferred to reconductor the old Power Transmission Lines. All it takes is to uninstall the old power conductors on these lines and replace them with the new, more efficient and sturdy conductors which offer better conductivity and a lot of other benefits. Power conductor plays the most significant role in the entire transmission network as it would be impossible to transfer electricity without power conductors and this is the sole reason why a lot of attention is paid to the type of conductors used in a transmission line and their overall condition.

The maintenance of transmission lines is very difficult in areas such as hills, mountains, streams and areas which have extreme weather conditions and it sometimes demands for special machines and tools to be used for completing the maintenance work. All the transmission companies might not own these high end machines and they usually take services of vendors who offer the machinery on rent. This again adds to the cost of maintaining the Power Transmission Lines. The difficulties faced by maintenance staff or people engaged in the business of power transmission is hardly recognized by end users because we hardly notice such things, all we worry about is the interruption in supply of electricity as and when it happens and we expect the things to be sorted out at the earliest. The maintenance work involves a lot of risk and people might end up losing their lives if they make a small mistake while working in such high voltage environment. The power transmission companies have minimized the risk to the lives of their employees by ensuring that most of the work is automated so that the manual interference can be minimized.