By: Jhonrylle Jay T. Burlaos
What is the difference between underground and overhead electrical system? Where do we usually use underground or overhead electrical system? And what system is the most efficient between the two? These are the questions we will be answering based on the sources I have found [1].
The difference between underground electrical system and overhead electrical system is first the place where they operate. The underground electrical system (UES) is done underground hence the name (E.G. Cebu’s UES), it is usually placed inside the train tunnels or subways, underneath the structures or sometimes it is placed below the street roads along with the drainage system. The good thing about UES is that, if the place experiences floods and high tides the electrical part of this system will not be affected of the rising of the water level, the cause of this is the strong sheath and jacket that holds and protect the electrical wire from being wet. Next the overhead electrical system (OES) is usually operated above ground with the help of post (E.G. Meralco’s OES), this is the most common electrical or wiring system around the world. The advantage of this system is that the electrical engineers easily manage to fix the wiring if ever there is a power failure or black out, one more advantage of this wiring system is that the engineers can operate without thinking about water surges.
Second difference is the budget they use for each project. The UES is more expensive than OES because UES need more protective sheath than the OES so it can withstand the water under the drainage system underneath the street roads and the floods. Another thing why UES is more expensive is that the materials used and the process of this system is more complicated than OES, and UES needs digging for more spaces underground. While OES is easier and straightforward because it does not need any digging and it has few complications than UES.
Third difference is that OES can hold more power voltage than UES. OES system can carry more voltages than UES that has limitation because of the limited heat dissipation that helps to transfer large amount of voltages.
Where do we use OES and UES? We usually see OES in cities that are still in progress and low in budget, for the reason of OES is cheaper and safe than UES, another reason we use this in smaller cities is that the maintenance available is much more accessible than underground wiring system. In the other hand we see the UES in big cities where they can afford the materials needed and the budget for digging and excavating processes done for this kind of project for electrical systems, in addition if big cities uses OES they will be having a hard time to operate if there are power failures because of the high building so they choose to put their electrical wiring underground so they can still manage to observe the distribution of power voltages.
What is the most efficient between the two? Based on the given definitions and advantages, OES is more efficient and cheaper than UES. The budget used for building OES is cheaper because the materials needed is not much than UES that needs more protecting materials to be able to work underground. And the maintenance for checking the corrupted wires and broken outlet is more accessible than underground level [1].
Overall the purpose of this topic is to allow the reader to
understand the difference between UES and OES, and what are the advantages of
using UES or OES. The use of OES for carrying high voltages is more efficient
than UES, and also it is cheaper than UES.
VOLTECH 