Subtransmission cable · Georgia
We buy 69 kV cable for station exits and crossings
Sixty-nine kilovolt cable is bought in short runs for specific problems: a station exit, a crossing under a rail line, a river. The cable is the easy part of the review. The terminations, the joints and the moisture in the strand decide the outcome.
- Short runs
- Stress cones
- Duct and crossing work
01Overview
What this page covers
At 69 kV a utility is still mostly building overhead line, so cable appears only where overhead is impossible: leaving a substation into a duct bank, passing under a highway or a railroad, crossing a river, or connecting an industrial customer with its own 69 kV yard. Runs are short, often a few hundred feet and seldom more than a couple of thousand.
That shape defines the lot. A 69 kV package is a reel or two of cable, a set of terminations, possibly one joint, and a bonding and grounding kit. It is bought as a package because the accessories were sized to that cable and rarely fit anything else.
02Specification
What the reel and the accessory box tell us
- Voltage class
- 69 kV, 100% and 133% insulation levels
- Insulation
- XLPE or EPR, nominal wall about 0.5 in.
- Conductor
- 500 kcmil to 1,750 kcmil, compact or concentric, aluminum or copper
- Shield
- Copper tape or copper wire with counter helix; lead sheath on older cable
- Jacket
- PVC or HDPE; interlocked armor where the route requires it
- Reels
- 60 in. to 84 in.; runs commonly 1,000 to 3,000 ft
- Accessories
- Stress cones, potheads, joints, link boxes, grounding kits
- Condition
- New surplus, service-aged, wet, cut out of a duct bank
The insulation wall, the shield type and the jacket compound are printed in the cable legend on the jacket. Read the legend before anything else on this class.
03Cable and accessories we buy
Cable and accessories we buy
XLPE cable with a tape or wire shield
The common modern build: compact stranded conductor, semiconducting screens, cross-linked polyethylene insulation, copper shield and a jacket. The shield carries fault current and defines the bonding scheme, so its type is part of the review.
Lead-sheathed 69 kV cable
Older installations with a lead sheath over the insulation screen and a jacket or serving outside it. The sheath is a moisture barrier and a metallic return, and its condition at the duct mouth usually decides whether the cable is worth anything.
Terminations and stress cones
Heat-shrink and cold-shrink stress cones, porcelain or composite potheads and the hardware that goes with them. Factory-assembled terminations in sealed packaging retain their worth; a used one is dismantled hardware.
Joints, link boxes and grounding kits
Premolded or taped joints, sheath link boxes, voltage limiters and grounding kits. These are counted, not weighed, and they are the part of a 69 kV lot that is easiest to lose and hardest to replace.
04Evaluation
How a 69 kV package is reviewed
Footage and continuity first. A single factory length with sealed ends is a different asset from four lengths that were cut out of a duct bank, and the reel tag or the cut ends will say which it is. Where the run was cut to pull it out, the review starts from the shortest usable section rather than from the total.
Moisture is the decisive test at this class. Water in the strand travels under the shield and breaks down the insulation from the inside, and it does not show from the outside. A cable that was left with open ends in a Georgia summer is assumed wet until a test says otherwise, and a wet length is recovery material.
Then the accessories, because they carry much of the value. A matched set of terminations in original packaging, with the joint and the link box, makes a small reel worth moving. The same reel without them is a length of shielded cable looking for a buyer who already has the hardware.
A 69 kV cable holds a charge after it is isolated. The insulation is a capacitor, and the conductor will not be at zero volts because the breaker is open. Discharge to ground and apply a ground at the work point before a cable end is handled, and treat an isolated sheath as capable of standing at a dangerous potential.
05Seller terms
Before you sell: how it works
Four things a seller should be able to pin down before a truck is booked.
Verification
Footage is checked against the reel tag, the sequential marks on the jacket, the wrap count against the barrel, or a published weight per 1,000 ft — whichever the reel actually supports.
Payment
Payment method and timing are agreed in writing for the specific lot before anything is loaded or moved. No verbal number is treated as an agreement.
Paperwork
A bill of sale for the lot, and for utility material the owning utility’s release reference. Neither is optional and neither is created after the fact.
Freight
Collection is arranged as part of the terms. Say what can lift the reels and whether a 53-foot trailer can reach them, and the pickup is planned around that.
Sending a reel list and photographs costs nothing. A review is not a purchase, and nothing is bought, moved or scheduled until written lot terms are agreed for that material. Request a pickup when the lot is ready.
07Questions
69 kV cable questions
How much 69 kV cable is normally on one reel?
Factory lengths are usually between 1,000 and 3,000 ft, limited by drum size and weight. Short runs are often ordered as one length to avoid a joint in a duct.
Is wet 69 kV cable worth buying?
As recovery material, yes. It is not re-usable at 69 kV, because moisture in the strand cannot be driven out of a completed cable in the field.
Do the terminations have to go with the cable?
Not necessarily, but they are reviewed together where they exist. A termination kit is sized to a specific cable class and shield type, so it is worth little without the cable it fits.
Can 69 kV cable be re-used in a duct bank?
Only if it was pulled without damage and tested. Pulling stresses the jacket and the shield, so a cable removed from a duct is judged on the jacket at the pulling end.
Send the legend and the accessory list
The jacket legend gives size, wall and shield type. Whether the ends were sealed, and what accessories came with the reel, decide the rest.