this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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I have seen these balls on power lines in Western Australia for decades, and literally only just found out what they were.
They are used (maybe among other things) to understand exactly where a fault has occurred in a mlln outage.
They give you sensor data between substations, and allow the grid operator to better isolate the fault and restore power to the largest possible area, without reenergising the fault.
They use parasitic power transfer to be totally disconnected from any dedicated power supply.
Very cool
The ones you've seen are probably just simple markers to help low flying aircraft (crop dusters, helicopters, etc) see the power lines.
WA has a... unique energy grid. AFAIK you've basically only got a proper grid for the south west quarter of your state, which is not even connected to most (by area, not population) of WA, let alone part of the national grid. Most of Australia, even Tasmania, is on a national grid which transmits power over very long distances and that's where power line management becomes especially important.
The WA grid also doesn't actually need to transmit much power, since virtually all of the power consumption is in Perth which has several local redundant power supplies. It's really only small towns that would ever need to get their power from any significant distance.
Most remote capital in the world checking in!
Yeah, the SWIS is totally isolated from any other grid, meaning it cannot rely on interconnects to help with variable generation.
There is starting to be a coal generation issue coming up!
No crop dusters in the city, but potentially, as it is not too far from Jandakot airport.
I will ask some mate what they recon. They work in the industry. If I go past I'll take a photo for you.
Was in WA recently on a holiday and was wondering what those things were! Was surprised to see so many interesting sights to see there though, like the Pinnacles for instance. What impressed me the most though was being able to get a haircut - and a pretty good one at that - for just $15! Here in NZ it costs at least $30 for a decent haircut, which I now feel is a massive ripoff.