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Today I saw some high tension wires of which some (the middle two) had some large coils wound on top of them as in the image, every 50 meters or so, over a few hundred meters. Does anyone know what those are for?

coils

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    $\begingroup$ I believe these are for vibration damping - but will look for some references before posting as an answer. $\endgroup$
    – Floris
    Commented Oct 4, 2015 at 23:01
  • $\begingroup$ Vibration damping of towers is usually done with a Stockbridge damper, which looks quite different: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockbridge_damper $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 4, 2015 at 23:19
  • $\begingroup$ These look more like a repair. Shunts that restore the conductivity in a line that was damaged. Hot spots can be detected by IR cameras during inspections. $\endgroup$
    – docscience
    Commented Oct 5, 2015 at 2:51
  • $\begingroup$ Were they at regular/equal intervals and in pairs as shown? $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 5, 2015 at 4:01
  • $\begingroup$ "These look more like a repair." I was thinking the same thing. Maybe they are splices in the transmission line? I could see how they might not want to do a direct splice because the cables are under a lot of stress, and it might be difficult to satisfy the twin requirements of both (a) high strength and (b) high conductance across the splice with a single cable. So instead they use a short straight length of, say, steel cable to handle the high mechanical stress requirement at the splice, and then use some high conductivity cable of, say, copper to carry the electricity across the splice. $\endgroup$
    – user93237
    Commented Oct 5, 2015 at 4:36

2 Answers 2

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I was walking on the Rota Vicentina, SW Portugal, and saw the same thing. They are to protect migrating birds from the high voltage line. Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ssrLFLwvdo

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The coils are used in order to boost the voltage as some lines can stretch for kilometers.

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  • $\begingroup$ As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please edit to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. $\endgroup$
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