[TowerTalk] RE: Ground Rods + Conductivity

[William Till]

At 12:59 PM 4/18/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>Here in Kansas...with its rich soil (with some gumbo here and there) we have
>>very good soil conductivity. >snip<
>
>Speaking of ground conductivity--When I was in Sask. Canada last year
>I noticed that the power lines had only one conductor-no neutral.
>The pole transformers had one side connected to the ground wire
>coming down the pole. Is the soil conductivity so good there that they
>can use the soil as a conductor many miles from the generating station?
>Is this a common practice in the states? Is it a safe practice?
>Any ideas?


Works for us. Sask Power did some exhaustive research many years ago and
found that the cost of installing a ground return wire would not be
justified. Lightning doesn't seem to be any greater problem than anywhere
else and we get our share of thunderstorms through the summer. The single
wire system has been used here since about 1950. It's used in Alberta too,
where they originally used a two wire single phase system and after watching
Saskatchewan for some years, they switched to the single wire, ground return
system.

Our electrical codes are as stiff as anybody's and in spite of earlier
concerns, no problems have arisen.

It's a testimony to the ground conductivity of the prairie glacial soils. I
think they only use one ground rod at each transformer pole. This I will
check out with a couple of my VE5 friends who are retired district operators
for Sask Power.

Incidentally, we often use the "water it in" method to install ground rods.
I'm not sure how the power companies do it.

QTH here is located astride the Alberta/Saskatchewan border, so we see the
practises of two different administrations.


73

Bill - VE5FN




>
>Bill W5EC 
>
>
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William G Till                      Amateur radio: VE5FN & VE7LW
3401 - 58th Avenue           Sysop of VE6YLL.#NEAB.AB.CAN.NA
Lloydminster AB                Email: wtill@bordercity.com
Canada  T9V 1X3              Phone: 403-875-7619



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