The staff of the power transmission and inspection branch of Hubei Xiaogan Power Supply Company carried out ice melting operations in low temperature rain, snow and freezing weather. Photo by Xie Zhiming.
On February 2, minus 15 degrees Celsius, at the southern foot of Dabie Mountain in Hubei Province, Xiaochang County, Xiaogan City, 580 meters above sea level, the orange-red "giant tooth" tractor crawled slowly in the middle of the mountain, and the car carried three staff members of the transmission and inspection branch of the State Grid Xiaogan Power Supply Company, who were going to the top of the mountain to carry out ice melting operations in low temperature rain, snow and freezing weather.
Under the invasion of freezing rain, the 110 thousand volt phoenix boundary line is covered with 12 mm, far exceeding the warning value of 6 mm, and it is imperative to melt and remove ice. But the road surface is icy, the steep mountain road is difficult to walk, and the power engineering vehicle can not go to the mountain even if it is equipped with snow chains. Urgent!
The staff of the power transmission and inspection branch of Hubei Xiaogan Power Supply Company carried out ice melting operations in low temperature rain, snow and freezing weather. Photo by Xie Zhiming.
Chen Qi, the person in charge of the ice melting work of the power transmission and transportation inspection branch, asked the Xiaochang County Power Supply Company for help, and the Xiaowu Power Supply Station, which is closest to Jieling Mountain, responded immediately and urgently transferred 2 large-gear tractors, which are not easy to slip, and it is definitely no problem to use them to carry people up the mountain.
At 14 o'clock on the same day, at the foot of Fengjie Mountain, the "giant tooth" tractor carried the workers, divided into three round-trips, and slowly "moved" to the DC ice melting operation point. The cab space was narrow, and Cheng Tuo and other 3 operators curled up behind the driver.
The staff of the power transmission and inspection branch of Hubei Xiaogan Power Supply Company carried out ice melting operations in low temperature rain, snow and freezing weather. Photo by Xie Zhiming.
Bumpy all the way, freezing rain hit head-on, through a small piece of broken glass straight into the neck of the people in the car, after a while, their exposed faces, ears were frozen red, the biting coldness wrapped the whole body, and the people in the car could only grit their teeth and shiver to endure.
At the foot of the mountain, the 110,000-volt Fengxin substation and the substation operation and inspection branch are also preparing for ice melting. "DC ice melting technology is more efficient and safer than manual de-icing, and in a frozen environment, it can effectively eliminate the potential safety hazards of line icing. Hu Huazhi introduced the urban transportation inspection class of the substation transportation inspection branch. DC ice melting increases the temperature of the conductor by inputting a controllable current into the transmission line wire, and uses the current heating to increase the temperature of the wire, so that the ice melts and falls off.
The staff carried out ice melting operations in low temperature, rain, snow and freezing weather. Photo by Xie Zhiming.
The preparations at the foot of the mountain are in full swing, and the ice on the mountain does not dare to be sloppy. At 15:53, the ice melting work started. Observers Cheng Tuo and Min Chenxi used telescopes, cameras and other equipment to pay close attention to the icing of the line, and 200 amperes of current were output from the mobile ice melting device.
The wire temperature is minus 8 degrees Celsius, please continue to increase the ice melting current. Twenty minutes later, Cheng Tuo operated the drone to monitor the temperature of the wire during infrared temperature measurement, which was 10 degrees higher than before the ice melt, and then reported to the ice melting operator at the bottom of the mountain through the walkie-talkie.
In the Fengxin substation, the ice melting operators of the substation operation and inspection branch gradually increased the ice melting current to 800 amperes, and after 10 minutes, the temperature of the Fengjie line rose above freezing. After 30 minutes, the ice showed signs of loosening.
The ice is off! When the icicles about 5 meters long fell off the ice-covered route, a thin layer of ice had already formed on the clothes, and the crowd at the ice-covered observation point who had frozen into "icemen" shouted excitedly not far away. At 17:50, the nearly two-hour ice melting work was successfully completed.
In the next step, Xiaogan Power Supply Company will continue to monitor the operation of the transmission line in real time through the transmission remote intelligent inspection system to ensure the safe and stable operation of the transmission line in extremely cold weather. "In view of the different degrees of icing of transmission lines, Xiaogan Power Supply Company selectively adopts DC ice melting, drone impact de-icing, and mechanical vibration de-icing to quickly eliminate potential safety hazards of line icing, and make every effort to ensure the safe and reliable power supply of transmission lines before and after the Spring Festival. Cheng Tuo added. (Yu Jianbing, Xie Zhiming, He Yao, Xia Weihai).