why are electrical overhead powerlines lower in Ireland?

Andy From Sligo

Just wondering why the overhead ESB power-lines over here in Ireland are not on big Pylons as in UK? - even when I have seen pylons here they are still no-where near as high as the UK pylons in fields in the UK. - And the electricity overhead cables on the wooden poles, are they covered in PVC or just bare copper?

Davy

I'm not sure if they are lower or not but you would have to compare like with like, because higher the voltage the higher the pylon.

The uk would have a lot more 400kv towers than here, if they have them further apart they would need to be higher.

braddun

you forgot underground cables

Andy From Sligo

braddun wrote: »

you forgot underground cables

not many underground cables in my neck of the woods, they are normally overhead lines on wooden poles down here

SpaceTime

Quite possibly because you're looking at poles carrying completely different voltages and serving different purposes in either country.

A lot of the lines in your area are probably just sheathed 230V single phase / 400V three phase. They don't require amazing amounts of clearance at all. A lot of ESB's overhead LV line are 'quadruplex' lines that are fully insulated and just twisted in a plat.

Rural Ireland's full of scattered housing which would be relatively unusual in most of the denser areas of Britain, so you'll typically see a LOT more low voltage / medium voltage overhead wiring here than you would in Britain.

It's not a question of the UK undergrounding more than we do, it's just that the way the housing is completely scattered in a lot of rural Ireland leads to a *lot* more lines running around to serve them.

The overhead lines you're seeing in Britain are quite likely 33kV or higher, the ESB have similar or even higher levels of clearance required for their 38kV lines.

The clearances used by ESB are actually very conservative compared to many countries.

You'll see *much* higher pylons around the Dublin and Cork areas in particular and around the Kildare/Pale area more so than anywhere else in Ireland because of population densities and concentrations of major industries / generation facilities.

Also, as pointed out above, the heavier populated parts of England would require much more very high voltage transmission lines than we do.

Ireland's voltages are:

400kV (only one line uses this connecting Moneypoint to the Greater Dublin area)
220kV (mostly just used for a few key lines and in around Dublin and Cork in particular)

The vast majority of the grid is 110kV and some areas might not have much more than 38kV lines feeding substations.

If you're in the Northwest of Ireland, you're not likely to encounter anything other than 110kV

In England in particularly, you're going to see a *lot* more 275kV lines running around the place than you'd see 220kV here.

If you're interested, here's the map : http://www.eirgrid.com/media/All-IslandTransmissionMap.pdf

Also bear in mind that Northern Ireland uses a bit of a mixture of UK National Grid and ESB voltages. 110kV isn't used in GB at all.

I think if you were comparing a rural area in Ireland with say Northern Scotland, North Wales or the wilds of the Yorkshire Moors, you'd have a much more more reasonable comparison than say Greater Manchester.

Andy From Sligo

SpaceTime wrote: »

Quite possibly because you're looking at poles carrying completely different voltages and serving different purposes in either country.

A lot of the lines in your area are probably just sheathed 230V single phase / 400V three phase. They don't require amazing amounts of clearance at all. A lot of ESB's overhead LV line are 'quadruplex' lines that are fully insulated and just twisted in a plat.

Rural Ireland's full of scattered housing which would be relatively unusual in most of the denser areas of Britain, so you'll typically see a LOT more low voltage / medium voltage overhead wiring here than you would in Britain.

It's not a question of the UK undergrounding more than we do, it's just that the way the housing is completely scattered in a lot of rural Ireland leads to a *lot* more lines running around to serve them.

The overhead lines you're seeing in Britain are quite likely 33kV or higher, the ESB have similar or even higher levels of clearance required for their 38kV lines.

The clearances used by ESB are actually very conservative compared to many countries.

You'll see *much* higher pylons around the Dublin and Cork areas in particular and around the Kildare/Pale area more so than anywhere else in Ireland because of population densities and concentrations of major industries / generation facilities.

Also, as pointed out above, the heavier populated parts of England would require much more very high voltage transmission lines than we do.

Ireland's voltages are:

400kV (only one line uses this connecting Moneypoint to the Greater Dublin area)
220kV (mostly just used for a few key lines and in around Dublin and Cork in particular)

The vast majority of the grid is 110kV and some areas might not have much more than 38kV lines feeding substations.

If you're in the Northwest of Ireland, you're not likely to encounter anything other than 110kV

In England in particularly, you're going to see a *lot* more 275kV lines running around the place than you'd see 220kV here.

If you're interested, here's the map : http://www.eirgrid.com/media/All-IslandTransmissionMap.pdf

Also bear in mind that Northern Ireland uses a bit of a mixture of UK National Grid and ESB voltages. 110kV isn't used in GB at all.

I think if you were comparing a rural area in Ireland with say Northern Scotland, North Wales or the wilds of the Yorkshire Moors, you'd have a much more more reasonable comparison than say Greater Manchester.

thank you for that most informative and fascinating -

Carawaystick

Ah, 220kV is more widespread than just Cork and Dublin, there's a whole ring around the country, 2 lines to Waterford from Dublin, 2 lines to the Shannon estuary from Cork,
the line from Galway via Tynagh to the 400kV line etc.


The conductors on these high voltage lines are usually Aluminium and unsheathed.
Al is a fair conductor and much stronger and cheaper than Cu. and a steel wire is used to bulk up the strength too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission#Overhead_transmission

SpaceTime

When I say they're more common in Dublin and Cork, I mean you'll encounter a density of them and in areas that you're likely to actually notice them like over roads.

Full map of the whole grid is posted above.

You'll encounter much greater densities of HV lines in England though than anywhere here just because of the population that needs to be served.