Installation experience with a fiber optic cable helically wrapped around a Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation 115 kV transmission phase conductor

Approximately 4000 meters of an eight-fiber, multimode, dual-window (850 nm and 1300 nm), graded index silica-glass fiber optic cable was helically wrapped around a phase conductor of a 115 kV transmission line, An economic comparison of several fiber-optic cable installation alternatives is reported. The characteristics of the helically wrapped fiber-optic cable, as well as the entire installation, including intermediate and high voltage phase-to-ground (PTG) and termination splicing are discussed. The fiber link is an extension of an overhead composite optical-fiber cable installation performed a few years earlier and is intended to accommodate supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), protective relaying, and telemetry functions. >