ClampStar® - The Engineered Solution for Mitigation of Aged T&D Assets

ClampStar has been around for nearly a decade and a half, and over the years has become the go-to solution for hundreds of utilities, in the U.S. and many other countries around the world, including Canada and Australia.  Over the years, these utilities have installed well over 100,000 ClampStars on aged Distribution and Transmission lines, as well as OHSW and OPGW.

Applications include full-tension restoration and 250°C system uprating, allowing aged portions of infrastructure to be safely operated at temperatures well beyond their original design parameters.  This allows utilities to extend the service life of aged lines by several decades, allowing them to uprate the ampacity to meet the ever-increasing demands of our modern era, and to comply with Regulations such as FERC/NERC TPL-001-4 and TPL-001-1 relating to N-1 Contingency conditions, and Reliability Standard FAC-008-3.  With ClampStar, such compliance can commonly be obtained without the need to replace conductor.  All ClampStar units are rated for continuous service on the largest conductor a given size ClampStar will accommodate, with that conductor operating at 250°C (482°F).

ClampStar is an Engineered, Mechanically Installed, Electrical Shunt providing a full-tension purchase of existing conductor beyond the existing anomaly and providing an alternate current path of much lower resistance than the original conductor.  ClampStar configurations include full-tension splices and jumper loop splices, deadend connectors and strain clamps, suspension clamps, including those made with helical rods, and conductor repair.

Unique brackets provide attachment points for deadends and suspensions, to which a tether is attached to restore any mechanical degradation.

Transmission Class, ClampStar units are inherently corona free up to 800kV AC and 500kV DC and are easily installed on energized lines bare hand.  Distribution Class, ClampStar units are inherently corona free through 115kV to 138kV depending on elevation.

No special power tools, hoists, jacks, grips, or jumpers are needed for ClampStar installations.  A power driver or “rattlegun” is recommended to reduce lineman fatigue, and a typical Transmission Class installation is completed in 15-20 minutes.  Typical Distribution Class installations generally require less than 8 minutes.

The superior electrical performance of ClampStar, which renders it with inherently more permanent endurance or service life, based on the extraordinary “electrical resistance stability” is achieved by a resilient purchase of the conductor which compensates for thermal expansion and contraction thus maintaining the electrical integrity, and the conterminous interface afforded by the proprietary inhibitor compound CC2 (pronounced “see-see squared”).

These features are simply not available from compression connectors, most of which will not pass resistance stability tests at even 250°C.  ClampStar, in comparison conducts our electrical thermal cycle testing at 390°C (734°F), and test reports indicate a flat line!  That is Stability with a Capital “S”!

The “connectors” are considered “the weak link in the chain” when one is assessing and identifying the “most limiting component” of an Interconnection, in compliance with requirement R8 of Reliability Standard FAC-008-3!  The electrical interface of connectors degrades with time and temperature, thereby degrading the mechanical integrity as well as the electrical current capacity.  Left unchecked, an aerial connector will eventually fail, resulting in a dropped line and an outage at a minimum – assuming no fire or other structural damage, or worse, loss of life.

ClampStar restores the mechanical integrity to its original full-tension rating of the conductor, and eliminates the degraded electrical interface, allowing the conductor to be operated at significantly greater ampacity, provided sag clearance is maintained.

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