Subtransmission cable buyers in New York

Mostly overhead, and that is the whole point

Almost all subtransmission line in New York is bare overhead conductor on wood poles, steel poles or lattice structures. The conductor is ACSR or AAAC, and the sizes are the familiar ones: 266.8 kcmil Partridge and 336.4 kcmil Linnet on the lighter lines, 477 kcmil Hawk where the spans or the load are larger. Insulation is air, plus strings of insulators and the clearance the structure provides.

That means the surplus from this band is mostly conductor, not cable: whole drums left from a reconductor, part drums from a pole replacement, and removed conductor taken down in sections. The same band also produces insulators, hardware and shield wire, and OPGW where the line carries fiber. All of it is line material rather than cable, and it is bought on code name, footage and condition rather than on sheath and insulation.

Where the cable actually is

Shielded cable enters this band in four places. The first is the substation exit, where a 69 kV circuit leaves an indoor or enclosed station through a duct bank under a road or a yard and rises into the switchyard. The second is the riser, where cable comes up a pole or a structure to a termination, often in a length of a few dozen feet. The third is an urban section where overhead construction is not permitted or not practical. The fourth is a crossing, under a river, a rail corridor or a major highway.

The construction is 69 kV solid-dielectric cable with 100 percent or 133 percent insulation level depending on how the system is grounded, copper conductor from 1/0 up to 1000 kcmil, extruded semiconducting screens, a copper tape or wire shield and a jacket. Older urban sections may still contain paper-insulated lead-covered 69 kV cable. Because these runs are short, the lots that come out of them are short, and a ten-foot piece of 69 kV cable with a cut shield is not the same asset as a full drum from a project.

• Exit cable: usually the longest lengths, from a duct bank to a yard
• Riser cable: short, often with a pothead or stress cone still fitted
• Urban sections: mixed ages, sometimes paper, rarely documented
• Crossing cable: long single pulls, valued on sheath condition
• Line material: drums and removed conductor, a separate conversation

Why this band produces the most surplus

Three reasons. First, volume: there are more 69 kV circuits than 345 kV circuits by a wide margin, and each one eventually gets rebuilt. Second, the work itself: replacing wood poles, reconductoring for load, and rebuilding for clearance or storm resilience all produce part drums and cut conductor, and none of those jobs is planned to leave clean full reels behind. Third, age: much of this plant was built in the middle of the last century, so the replacement cycle is continuous rather than occasional.

For a seller the practical implication is that this material accumulates in small amounts in many stores. A single part drum is not worth a truck, but a store clearing twenty years of 69 kV spares is a real lot, and it is worth sorting the cable from the conductor before anyone quotes it.