The Practical Issues involved in Designing, Specifying and Installing Skin Effect Current Tracing Systems

The Practical Issues involved in Designing, Specifying and Installing Skin Effect Current Tracing Systems, (SECT), for land based applications will be presented. Key learnings from the author's forty years of experience with skin effect heating for above ground and underground applications are described. Specific details of installation do's and don'ts, transformer, control and load centers options, and the mechanical issues of welding the skin effect heat tube and thermal insulation will be examined. The heart of a skin effect heating system is the conductor; the options of dielectrics for applications up to 150 degrees C, pipe maintain temperatures and voltages u p to 4KV will be detailed including installation and splicing techniques.