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Nov
10

What are the wind limitations on residential power lines?

Question by Aaron: What are the wind limitations on residential power lines?
Meaning…
On average, what does it take in wind speeds to disrupt residential power lines at the poles.

Is there some spec that they have to be rated against?

Best answer:

Answer by Norton
Interesting, I would say that there is such a spec, but I am not aware f it.

At my home (in NJ), the highest winds we have witnessed was during a hurricane (Gloria) in 1985 when local wind speeds were 82 mph. That, incidentally, was the last time we lost the power due to high winds. We recently had gusts of 64 mph, but no power loss in that neighborhood.

If I can find an actual spec, I’ll come back later and add it here.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
small residential wind turbines

For sure at very high wind speeds, typically from 45 to 80 mph, most small wind turbines
small wind turbines cease power generation and shut down. The wind speed at which shut down occurs is called the cut-out speed(80 mph),if not the furling speed. Having a cut-out speed is a safety feature which protects the wind turbine from damage. Shut down may occur in one of several ways. In some machines an automatic brake is activated by a wind speed sensor. Some machines twist or “pitch” the blades to spill the wind. Still others use “spoilers,” drag flaps mounted on the blades or the hub which are automatically activated by high rotor rpm’s, or mechanically activated by a spring loaded device which turns the machine sideways to the wind stream. Normal wind turbine operation usually resumes when the wind drops back to a safe level.

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  1. bsteven24 says:

    The wind doesn’t directly cause you to lose power, there are other factors that would. In a residential neighborhood there are one, two, or three wires way up high. These carry very high voltages, in the 10k-20k range. If the wind sways these wires so far they hit each other, this causes a short in the distribution system. (There are often bars that run with the wires to keep them apart) Most the time this throws a fuse somewhere and just has to be reset. It could also take out a transformer up line that reduces the power from the generation station to these lines however. In a hurricane, numerous lines get knocked down, transformers topple and the whole system must be shut off, inspected, fix and turned back on section by section.

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