In order to fulfill the tremendous worldwide demand for electrification, power line professionals will need to adopt rapid, reliable and sustainable solutions. For example, in a fast-developing country like India, which had the largest population without electricity in 2014 and 1.34 billion inhabitants in 2017, the demand for electrification is immense. In recent years, a new program facilitated 0.73 million new household connections per month and almost 19,000 villages per year. Wide-spread experience in geographical, geological, social and economic diversity leaves no doubt that overhead power lines (OHL) are the only way to provide electricity to communities where underground lines are technically unfeasible or too expensive. This book presents the technology and recent research into OHL in a concise and systematic way. After brief introductory sections, chapters cover line support, foundation and mechanical sag, corona discharge, overhead line insulators and conductors, earthing and earth wire, lightning and surge protection, insulation and coordination, route selection, commissioning, operation and maintenance. This book is a must-read for researchers and experts involved with utilities and particularly for anyone associated with the installation, electrification, operation and maintenance of overhead lines in transmission and distribution networks.

Surajit Chattopadhyay (Ph.D., CEng, FIE(I), MIET) is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering in Ghani Khan Choudhury Institute of Engineering and Technology, India. His interests include power line installation, electric power quality, fault diagnosis, protection and signal analysis. He has authored/co-authored 3 books and more than 130 research articles in international and national journals and conferences, edited 1 book and received many awards and best papers' recognition. He is a member of the IET Communities Committee, South Asia, and former hon. secretary (2013-16) and YP-chair (2012-13), IET Kolkata Network.