Interesting pictures of corona discharge due to smoke

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Very cool!

That would appear to be circuits 5L11, 5L12, 5L13 between Williston and Kelly Lake substations. That's the primary transmission corridor between the power-rich north and the populated south of this province. Hope the wildfires don't affect it...

Those circuits transition into 5L41 and 5L81 which happen to run past my house about 700 yards away. Might have to take my camera down sometime and experiment. :grin:
 
Are the fires close to you Rick?

Upon further reflection I'm not sure I would have the nerve to be that close to half mil volts. Could the smoke get thick enough to cause an arc around the insulators? Does the power company reduce the voltage in circumstances like this?
 
SmithBuilt said:
Are the fires close to you Rick?

Upon further reflection I'm not sure I would have the nerve to be that close to half mil volts. Could the smoke get thick enough to cause an arc around the insulators? Does the power company reduce the voltage in circumstances like this?
Click to expand...

I read through the thread. Very interesting. The utility asked the photographer for more photos. According to the photographer, the utility would lower the load (not voltage) due to the smoky conditions affecting transmission efficiency.
 
I live about 200 miles due south of Williams Lake (area of those corona photos) No fires around home. (I hope)

I'm currently on the tail end of a camping trip outside of Salmon Arm, and there are 3 substantial fires about 120 miles away from me in 3 different directions. Weather's been bad the past two days so I caved and rejoined the Interwebs.
 
SmithBuilt said:
Are the fires close to you Rick?

Upon further reflection I'm not sure I would have the nerve to be that close to half mil volts. Could the smoke get thick enough to cause an arc around the insulators? Does the power company reduce the voltage in circumstances like this?
Click to expand...

Answer: Yes. Sometimes the insulators flashover but even the lines in open air can flash. Check out these videos:

Daytime

Flash occurs around 1:29 on left side of screen

and

Nighttime

Flashes happen around 1:40

AFAIK the POCOs do not reduce voltage during fire events. They just hope any faults clear by themselves.
 
mxslick said:
Answer: Yes. Sometimes the insulators flashover but even the lines in open air can flash. Check out these videos:

Daytime

Flash occurs around 1:29 on left side of screen

and

Nighttime

Flashes happen around 1:40

AFAIK the POCOs do not reduce voltage during fire events. They just hope any faults clear by themselves.
Click to expand...

during the station fire in LA, edison shut down some lines running through the fire area due to the smoke.
 
You may recall fires, smoke and lines were a factor in the north-eastern blackout.

The corona issues from sharp points on the cable.

I read a paper about this whereby locals were complaining about the constant noise from a particular transmission line, and when they examined the cables they were badly manufactured with sharp bits on them causing the corona discharge ands thus the noise. They replaced the cable, and the complaints stopped immediately.
 
Here is a close-up of an insulator string and susupension hardware with corona discharge.(both -ve and +ve corona present)

Stats:
Shutter wide open for 1 min.,camera on tripod.Use red flash and close shutter after the flash.
 
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