Ice melting methods for

overhead lines
Winter.lnk
Masoud Farzaneh, Professor , UQAC, Canada
Technical Vice-President , IEEE DEIS
Executive Committee Member , CIGR Canada
Outline of presentation
1) Introduction
2) Anti-icing and de-icing systems (AI/DI)
for overhead lines
3) Thermal techniques
- Conductor de-icing
- Ground wire de-icing
4) Summary
Introduction
Heavy ice or snow accretion may lead to major outages of
almost any type
Two different strategies may be used to protect overhead
lines against extreme icing:
- Constructing stronger towers and cables
- Mitigating the effects of heavy ice accretion
The most practical approach is monitoring ice loads and
mitigating them before they reach dangerous proportion
This approach resulted in the development and
implementation of AI/DI systems in several countries
Definition of AI and DI
systems
AI Techniques are used to prevent or reduce
ice and snow accumulation on exposed
structures
DI techniques are used to remove or reduce
ice accretion on exposed structures
Classification of AI/DI
methods
Passive methods
Active coatings
Mechanical methods
Thermal methods
Combination of rings and
counterweights for
wet snow removal from
conductors (Saotome 1988)
Top: Snow rings.
Bottom: Counterflow wires added to
conductors to provoke snow shedding
(Higuchi 1972)
These methods do not require an external
source of energy
counterweights
Passive methods
Passive Icephobic coatings
Etched Al oxide /MOx/
RF-sputtered Teflon
Anodized and etched Al alloy +
Teflon impregnation.
ARF
Al
=
3.56
ARF
Al
= 3.4 to 6.3
Silver nanoparticles
passivated
with Zonyl 8740 on Al
ARF
Al
= 2.5 to
4
Icephobic Coatings
Active coatings and devices
Snow-melting magnetic
wire developed in Japan
These coatings or devices require some electrical
energy to be effective.
Example of evaluation result
of LC Spiral-Rods
Mechanical methods
These methods involve breaking the accreted ice to
provoke its shedding. They are classified as follows:
Scraping methods
Shock wave methods
Vibrating devices
De-icing using DAC
Thermal methods
[Prudhomme 2005]
These techniques are based on the concept
of heating line conductors with electrical
current to force ice melting and shedding
Classification of thermal
methods
Joule-effect methods
- Conductor de-icing
- Wire de-icing
Other methods
-Dielectric losses, radiative waves, external
heat sources
Example of thermal de-icing
( )
( )
I F pI I A
C
MELT
I AC
L C T T
r
I V
r R t
+
=
A
R
AC
: Conductor AC resistance (in O/km)
L
F
: Latent heat of fusion (in J /kg)

I
: Ice density in kg/m3)
r
C
: Radius of the conductor (in m)
r
I
: Outer radius of the ice sleeve (in m)
C
pI
: Specific heat of ice (in J /kg/C)
T
I
: Variable expressing the temperature of the ice (in C)
T
A
: Ambient temperature (in C)
t : Required time for melting (in s)
V
MELT
: Volume of ice sector to be melted above the conductor (m3)
AC
R
Current required for ice melting
Current required for de-icing
different conductors
[PrudHomme et al., 2005]
Conductor de-icing
Loadshift method
Reduced-voltageshort-circuit
Contactor loadtransfer
Pulseelectrothermal de-icer
Load shift method
The scope of application depends on the system
configuration, power loadavailableandambient conditions
Thismethodrequiresnoadditional equipment
Because it may be difficult to control the power load, this
method needs a well-defined strategy and decision tools
The basic idea is to force more current through a
particular circuit as the HV lines do not generally
produce enough heat to melt ice
Reduced-voltage short-circuit
DC is more advantageous for long TL
with large cross-section conductors
because reactive losses are eliminated.
This method requires the circuit to be
disconnected from the network.
The basic idea is to connect a line to a source with the
other end shorted, which requires to disconnect the
circuit to be de-iced from the network.
Contactor load transfer
This method is based on the use of switching
modules installed on bundled conductors to
control the current flow within the bundle.
Inde-icingmode, theswitchingmodules forcethecurrent
throughonesubconductor only.
Theprocess is repeatedfor theother subconductors of the
bundleuntil completede-icingisachieved.
Pulse electrothermal de-icer
Average power can bereduced by
a factor of 100 as compared to ac
or dccurrent.
Requirements for significant
modification of the conductor and
its thermal limitation during
summer time, limit theapplication
of thismethod.
Dielectriclayer
Conductor
Externalconductive
clayer
This de-icer uses the current pulse to heat an
external conductive coating surrounding the
conductor
Ground wire de-icing
It requires a current source as well as the electrical
insulationof GWat towers.
Costs associated with the insulation installation are partly
compensatedbytheeliminationof inductionlosses.
In remote areas, it is
possibleto useanauxiliary
diesel generator to de-ice
GW.
Other thermal methods
Method that uses steam as a heat source
Summary (1/2)
The AI/DI techniques include passive methods,
active coatings and devices, mechanical and thermal
methods.
Choosing the most appropriate method for a
particular line depends on the applicability of the
method, the basic energy requirement and the
efficiencyandcost of theinfrastructure.
Summary (2/2)
Non-thermal methods are generally limited to local
intervention
Thermal methods, for AI and speciallyDI, are
recognizedas the most efficient engineering
approachto minimizethe consequencesof severeice
stormson overheadlines.
Recent publications
Thank you for your attention!
Masoud Farzaneh
farzaneh@uqac.ca
www.masoudfarzaneh.ca
Thermal methods- Conductor de-icing
Reduced-voltage short-circuit
The basic idea is to connect a line to a source with the
other endshorted, whichrequirestodisconnect thecircuit
tobede-icedfromthenetwork.
Asanapproximaterule, for appliedvoltagesof 12, 25and
69 kV, it is possible to get the required current intensity
(1000 1500A) for circuit lengths of 12, 25and69km,
respectively