Introduction: One of the key factors affecting deterioration of overhead line (OHL) routes is the environmental conditions to which they are exposed. The two primary environmental factors which lead to OHL degradation are:

•    Conductor wear caused by motion of conductors due to wind input

•    Corrosion resulting from deposition of sulphur dioxide and chlorides (and local weather conditions)

Asset health models exist for capturing the risk to assets due to the environmental factors above.  Determining correlation between the model and existing weather and condition data sets has allowed approaches to asset management to be refined, however, in order to maximise the benefit from these models, there must be confidence that predictions from the model correlate with the conditions observed on the network.

Objectives: To produce OHL asset health data that can be verified through physical testing.