Ceramic Things On Power Poles

Those are the insulators.

Ceramic things on power poles.

Insulators are those glass or porcelain things you see on the tops and crossarms of telephone poles. Their purpose is to insulate the electrical wires they carry so that electricity or telephone calls don t all leak into the pole and into the earth. Cutouts act like a fuse and open when there is a problem with the line or a section of it. Electricity is like water.

The distribution lines that run down your street are probably 5 15kv. It leaks if you don t seal it. You definitely don t want the power lines connecting to the poles. Instead the electrical lines are attached to things that look like dinner plates or cups.

Primary wires are on top of the pole and usually carry 12 000 volts of electricity from a substation. I could not find any information regarding this particular shape though. From what i ve noticed high voltage ceramic insulators only insulate conductors end to end not inside to outside like traditional plastic insulators. From the length of the insulators probably towards the higher end of that spectrum.

Metal and concrete poles can last much longer but eventually all utility poles need to be replaced. It s a distribution transformer aka pole pig. Insulators prevent energized wires from coming in contact with each other or the utility pole. I ve seen these stacked disc structures on high voltage power lines everywhere.

What s on an electric power pole.