Saftey in trimming brush below overhead electrical wires

The electrical service comes up my laneway about 400 feet to a pole where the transformer is located. The brush below the wires need trimming and on close inspection I see at least two serviceberry bushes reaching up and touching the bottom wire of the two overhead hydro wires. I believe that I can safely trim off these branches with a manual wooden-handled pruner at least 5 feet below the wire, but a chainsaw would be faster but is it less safe?
What are the guidelines for safe trimming? I've heard that when a branch touches BOTH of the overhead wires, don't go near it. Comments????

Around here, the power company would be glad to do it when in the area. Give 'em a call. Asking is better than DIEING!

15 years ago the power company would gladly do it. Not now! Now it is the landowner's responsibility as the power company got rid of all their equipment and now contract it out when they need it. This is progress!!!

The bottom wire of a 7200 volt two-wire overhead power line is usually the non-energized grounded conductor. It doesn't really matter whether brush touches it or not, other than mechanical/wind issues. Similarly, the brush can be pruned away from this grounded conductor without much worry, so long as the brush is not also close to the (often not insulated) high voltage wire.

There's no guarantee that this is the actual arrangement in your case. If you know enough about electricity to look up at the transformer wiring and also the ground electrode wire coming down the pole to figure out which overhead wire is hot and which overhead wire is grounded, you can consider (at your own risk) doing some pruning.

If the bottom wire is energized, the branch only needs to touch this one wire to be dangerous.

In general, the high voltage wires leading TO the transformer belong to the utility company and it is their responsibility to do the needed pruning. I suspect they don't want you anywhere near such wires. Give them a call about the pruning problem and they'll probably get it taken care of. I would not fool with such an issue depending on wooden pruners to keep me "safe" from 7200 volts.

Wires leading FROM the transformer to your various structures may be your responsibility, that situation is much more dependent on your location and service provider. At 120 volts line-to-ground, and dealing with conductors that are usually insulated, the risks are lower as well.

Good intentions but unfortunately for home the tree trimmer. This task sometimes doesn't go well.

Whether they do it themselfs or contract it out, I think it's their responsibility when trees are that close to the power line. Not all property owners would have a clue about how dangerous it is to be working around high voltage power lines. Dave

Trim everything else you can safely, and leave the one going to the wire alone. Sooner or later, it will either die from carrying an electrical current, or it will cause an outage at which time THEY have no choice but to make the repair, and clear the brush away. At that time if they don't get it all off of there, it will at least be a safe distance away to where you can cut it at the ground. Also, spray with poison. It will take some time, but will perhaps get it taken care of safer.

I don't care what anybody sez - the power company is responsible for the maintenance of the primaries. It can't be any other way. If you call them, they'll put it on their list, and somebody with the proper experience and equipment will trim it. Don't even think about fooling with it yourself.

Paul

Years back i worked for Nelson tree service. We were contracted threw the power company to give 10' clearance on secondarys and 12' on primarys.

If you want them cleared call the power company on a windy day and tell them you thought you saw sparks due to the trees up in the wires.

Watch how fast they clear them out. Be adamit about seeing sparks...

You state.......

"I've heard that when a branch touches BOTH of the overhead wires, don't go near it."

Id say (assuming single phase) if it touches BOTH then there are several thousand volts across the branch and it will likely eventually (depends on moisture, conductivity, and other factors) draw enough current to burn and clear itself off.

Now if it (branch or vine) touches only one and theres a good chance that will be the bottom conductor, theres a good chance thats the Neutral and it is bonded to good old mother earth at every few poles, so if thats the case its near the same potential as mother earth (i.e. not so hazardous ifffff this were the case?????????).

BUTTTTTTT if the branch or vine touches the top HV primary conductor NOW THAT CAN BE DANGEROUS as that HV conductor may be several thousand volts above earth ground potential and can supply enough current (if its not already burned off from current draw) through your old ticker (if you get across it and earth) to make you DIE

My advice would be to call the Utility as the HV primary is likely (more likely then if its LV secondary drop to your house from the transformer) their responsibility and they know the proper and SAFE way to handle the problem.

Id rather see a person be safe then sorry and none here know the exact situation (phase, voltage, which line is which etc etc) so I wouldnt BET MY LIFE on taking it into your own hands based on our advice CALL THE UTILITY

John T

Thanks folks for the education and advice. Yes the top wire is the High Voltage wire since it is about triple the diameter of the bottom wire and it is tied into the top of the transformer on a heavy duty insulator.
The comment about 12 ft clearance is interesting since I have several 50 ft spruce trees within 20 ft of the line, so when I call the power company I'll check out their status as well.
Thanks again for the comments.

Good advice given here. There is a fella that lives down the road from me. He had the same idea that you did. He lost both arms and was lucky to live, in his attempt at line clearing.

Your electric company should cut them for free.Most have utility service contracts for tree trimming.They come around every year and look at my trees.

Main guideline is - you don't want to be the connection between a live-wire and ground. Use an insulated pole-saw and you'll be fine. Chainsaw could be risky if . . . you are grounded and cut a green tree that hits a live wire. I worked line-clearance in the late 60s-70s, with Aslplundh and Public Service Gas and Electric. We climbed with spikes, and/or worked out of bucket-lifts with hydraulic chain-saws. Climbing is a bit more scary since, if on a green tree, you can be pretty well grounded. I've been zapped many times just from small green branches connected a hot wire to me. Back in those days, the power company was eager to send us out whenever a problem was reported, or . . . even if a homeowner wanted a tree down as a matter of rountine (non-emergency). At that time, the power company wanted us to top out such trees before some homeowner made a mistake and dropped a tree on their wires.

Now ?? Here in central New York, the new "National Grid" barely does anything. Used to be called Niagara Mohawk and USA owned, but is now owned by a company in Spain. I called them twice last year when trees had fallen on their uninsulated 4800 volt lines that run through our woods. Both times, the tree limbs were on fire. Both times they did not show up until a full day later.

This summer, a big tree fell on one of their new 33,000 volt transmission lines, also on my property. If burned off half of one of the new cables that is now frayed pretty bad. I called them in August. They still haven't done anything about it. I also told them I've got 20-30 trees near those wires I'd like to get down. No response on that either.

Gotta be careful, there are no second chances

Ya, and I hear Nat grid is trying to get the ok for a rate hike!! J

I've heard that about both the big companies in this area. NYSEG is owned by a company in England, and National Grid is owned by a company in Spain. I assume they are both in it for the money, and little else. Seems weird to me that something as essential as electric production and distribution is left in foreign-hands.

Yep, the same with gas stations around here. Alot owned by non American people. Um,,,,, towels. If you know what I mean. Scary.

Call your power company. They maintain their own right of way and might do it free of charge. If you're part of a cooperative, all the better. We've got an oak tree sort of near our power pole. In a windstorm, one of the two trunks got a split near a main crotch and it looked like it would eventually spread and cause the tree to fall. I called up the electric coop and they sent someone out to trim one branch down to the crotch and all is fine years later. Of course, they did it on their schedule, which took about three months. But then it wasn't a rush job.

Christopher