Using dielectric losses to de-ice power transmission lines with 100 kHz high-voltage excitation

Icing of power transmission lines during winter storms is a persistent problem, causing outages and costing millions of dollars in repair expenses. Excitation at approximately 33 kV 100 kHz can be used melt ice off of power transmission lines through dielectric losses in the ice itself. Standing wave effects result in nonuniform heating if dielectric losses are used alone, but the combined effect of dielectric loss and skin-effect resistive loss can be tuned to provide uniform heating. A single high-voltage source may be used to de-ice sections of line up to 100 km long before attenuation impacts efficiency excessively. A prototype system capable of exciting a 1 m test line to 30 kV has been tested and show to be capable of removing a 7 mm ice layer from the line.