Aerial washing for Western Power lines
Release Date: 08 January 2008
Western Power has deployed helicopters to patrol power lines and carry out vital line washing in the wheatbelt to improve the reliability and quality of power supply to customers.
The helicopters will be line washing in Northam, Cunderdin, Tammin, Kellerberrin and Merredin between January 9 and January 16.
Western Power's customer relation's coordinator Kim Cooper said line washing was an important part of the maintenance of Western Power's 322,000 square kilometre network of lines.
"The use of helicopters to wash the lines and insulators clean of dust that accumulates during the long hot months is an innovative solution to the challenge of maintaining the reliability of Western Power's vast network of lines," Mr Cooper said.
"Built up dust, especially after harvest, can enable electricity to leak from the lines, over the insulators and cause pole top fires and faults.
"The advantage of using the helicopters is that they can hover very close to the pole to direct the high pressure hoses directly onto our equipment", he said.
The helicopters will also conduct emergency line washing near Southern Cross to clear lines of deposits left by recent bush fires.
"A Western Power helicopter will be within range of the lines affected by the fires near Southern Cross late this week or early next week. We will have the helicopter divert there and wash the soot and ash from the line," Mr Cooper said.
The helicopters carry specially trained crews who will use a high pressure spray of demineralised water to remove dust and residue from lines.
Mr Cooper said the helicopter crews take digital photographs of the poles and lines, take measurements of equipment from a platform extended from the helicopter and install visibility balls on lines to serve as a visual warning for aircraft of transmission lines.
"The helicopters allow us to transfer crews very quickly around the network, identify defects on lines and carry out numerous tasks we could not carry out as effectively otherwise."
Contact us
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