What are these?

[sigshane]

Hi. We have these on the bus sections of our switchyard bus at regular intervals and on all three phases, and I am curious as to what they are. They seem to perform no electrical function, so I am guessing either vibration control, or to prevent swaying in high wind?



Thanks in advance,

Shane

 

[iwire]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockbridge_damper

 

[rbalex]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockbridge_damper

Bob, I appreciate the link. I knew it was a damper, but didn't know the proper term for it.

 

[sigshane]

That looks exactly like the ones on our transmission lines from transformer to pulloff tower.

I assume the ones I displayed - the 'half-twist' ones - are for the same purpose on rigid buswork?

Thanks for the reply!

 

[sameguy]

Hahaha, we told one of the guys when asked what the big balls on the lines were for and told him, to knock the ninjas off if they try to stripline into the plant. We all think he thought it was true!
We keep an eye on him.

 

[jghrist]

I agree, Stockbridge dampers, but they look like they are installed wrong. They should hang below the conductor.

 

[broadgage]

I am not certain that these are dampers, they look too small in relation to the conductor to have much damping effect.
They also appear to be of very flexible wire or other material that can be looped over or around the busbar, whereas dampers are semi rigid.

I would suspect some variety of current or temperature monitoring device, with the output signal being transmitted by short range radio to the receiver.
Or possibly for MONITORING vibration, not controlling it as with a damper.

 

[sigshane]

I appreciate all of the input.

While for obvious reasons I cannot determine the flexibility of the thing, I do know that we have the Stockholm type on the lines coming from the powerhouse, and these other ones installed on the bus phases are different.

They are wrapped over and snug against the conductor, not suspended below it, as on the lines. They do not completely encompass the bus, they just seem terminate laterally even with the bus on either side.

They are bolted on top of the phase bus sections, and there seems to be one for every bus section, like between the support struts which hold the bus off the ground.

They are not installed on the buswork between circuit breakers and disconnect switches however, only on the east and west buses. I would paste a simple one-line of the switchyard here for your visual understanding of our system if that would help, but it will be quite a large file, in terms of megabytes.

Suffice it to say we have a "breaker and a half" scheme, with buswork on either end connecting the grid together - THERE is where these things are installed, and no where else.