Experience in OPGW Cables Selection for Overhead Transmission Live Lines

Since 1996 CVG EDELCA has built overhead transmission lines employing optical ground wire cable (OPGW) instead of conventional ground wire, and nowadays, it is replacing conventional ground wire by OPGW cable in about 1366 km of overhead transmission live lines. It's important to review the standards, manufacturers' recommendations, OPGW cable configurations, selection of materials and acceptance criteria tests, in order to take them into consideration for the accomplishment of engineering's specifications of the optical ground wire, and in this way, to assure the data transmission's quality and electromechanical behavior of the cable, in accordance to optical, physical, electrical and mechanical requirements of the project. In this paper, the process of selection of the OPGW cable based on engineering's specifications, previous experiences, methods and standardized test procedures are described.