IEEE Spectrum and Wiley are proud to bring you this white paper, sponsored by Hendrix by Marmon Utility.

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Ice storms cause long outages because several exposures act together. Ice adds weight to conductors, hardware and structures. Wind pushes on the larger iced surface. Trees and limbs bend into the line and add impact and uneven load. Conductors may also gallop and lose clearance. This paper explains how these loads combine and why the complete line must be assessed, not a single component. It reviews a monitored winter test of three conductor systems. It also summarizes utility records from a major regional ice storm. Finally, it outlines how to choose corridors, plan restoration and keep crews and the public safe around covered conductors.