SWER in Rural Alberta?

[samgillis]

I was in Alberta a few months ago, northwest of Calgary and southwest of Edmonton, and noticed what seemed to be distribution lines that only had one conductor. I even saw some pole mounted transformers that were fed by this one wire. All I could think was that these were SWER because I couldn't seem to find a mainline neutral anywhere.

Is this what I was seeing and, if so, do they still run these in rural parts of the country or are they just antiquated and haven't been upgraded?

 

[roger]

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[ron]

Single-wire earth return is principally used for rural electrification