Key:voltage
 voltage
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For describing the voltage of power lines, cables, and substations. 
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| Group: power |
| Used on these elements |
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| Status: de facto |
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The nominal voltage (601-01-21) of a power line, cable, substation, or rail. Voltages can sometimes be safely determined from signage on the support structures (or signs on sites where underground cables run). Alternatively, they can be deduced from the length of insulators, conductor spacing, or other characteristics, in combination with some general knowledge of the power system.
Values should be entered in volts without the unit or thousand delimiter. For example, for a 15 kV line, the value should be voltage=15000, neither "15 kV", nor "15,000" nor combinations of this.
When multiple voltages are in use, for example on a power line carrying two circuits, or a substation converting between two voltages, the voltages should be separated by semicolons with the highest voltage listed first: voltage=275000;132000.
This tag should not be used for transformers - the voltage:primary=* and voltage:secondary=* tags should be used instead.
OpenInfraMap shows power lines colour coded by voltage range and its exact value, allowing for quick analysis of the OSM data.
Nominal, rated, and maximum voltages
There is some disagreement between system operators about "nominal" line voltages. A line which is classified 400 kV in the UK and a one which is classified as 420 kV in continental Europe may be carrying very similar levels of voltage in practice - it is only the nominal voltage designation which is different.
In some areas the "nominal" voltage published may actually be the maximum continuous rated voltage, especially as methods for regulating voltage improve so lines can be run closer to their theoretical maximum.
There's no easy way of finding out the actual levels of voltage, so the system operator's designation should be used, but it should be noted that these "nominal" voltages aren't directly comparable between countries.
IEC 60038 on Wikipedia defines a number of voltage ranges, which may be useful for voltage classification.
| Series 1 | Series 2 | Belgium | Canada | Great Britain |
India | Indonesia | Ireland | Japan | Korea | Norway | Philippines | Taiwan | United States | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. | Max. | Nom. | Max. | ||||||||||||
| 3 | 3.6 | ||||||||||||||
| 4.16 | 4.40 | 4.16 | 4.16 | 4.16 | |||||||||||
| 6 | 7.2 | 6 6.3 6.6 |
6.6 | 6.6 | 6.9 | ||||||||||
| 10 | 12 | 10 11 12 12.4 |
11 | 11 | 10 | 11 | |||||||||
| 12.47 | 13.20 | 12.47 | 12.47 | ||||||||||||
| 13.20 | 13.97 | 13.2 | |||||||||||||
| 13.80 | 14.52 | 13.8 | 13.8 | 13.8 | |||||||||||
| 15 | 17.5 | 15 15.6 |
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| 20 | 24 | 20 22 |
22 | 20 | 20 | 22 | 22.9 | 22 | 23 | ||||||
| 24.94 | 26.47 | 25 | 25 | ||||||||||||
| 30 | 36 | 36 | 33 | 33 | 33 | ||||||||||
| 34.50 | 36.50 | 34.5 | 34.5 | ||||||||||||
| 35 | 40.5 | 38 | |||||||||||||
| 45 | 52 | 45 50 |
46 | ||||||||||||
| 66 | 72 | 70 | 66 (Manitoba), 69 (Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island) 72 (Alberta on ATCO Electric and EPCOR, Saskatchewan) |
66 | 70 | 66 | 66 | 69 | 69 | 69 | |||||
| 110 | 123 | 115 (southern Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Ontario) 120 (Quebec) |
110 | 110 | 110 | 110 | 115 | 115 | |||||||
| 132 | 145 | 138 (Alberta on AltaLink and ENMAX, British Columbia, northern Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan) 144 (ATCO Electric) |
132 | 132 | 138 | 138 | |||||||||
| 150 | 170 | 150 | 161 (Quebec only) | 150 | 154 | 154 | 161 | 161 | |||||||
| 220 | 245 | 220 | 230 (British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan) 240 (Alberta) |
220 | 220 | 230 | 230 | ||||||||
| 275 | 300 | 300 | 287 (British Columbia only) | 275 | 275 | 275 | 275 | 300 | 287 | ||||||
| 330 | 362 | 345 (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia) | 345 | 345 | 345 | ||||||||||
| 380 | 420 | 380 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 420 | |||||||||
| 500 | 550 | 500 (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario) | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | |||||||||
| 735 | 765 | 735 (Quebec) 765 |
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| 765 | 800 | 765 | 765 | 765 | |||||||||||
HVDC systems
Some HVDC systems use the earth or a grounded conductor as return. Not only monopolar HVDC schemes use such a device, it can be also found at many bipolar HVDC schemes in order to allow an operation of the scheme in monopolar mode, however in most cases with reduced power. The grounded conductor must be always installed with insulators on the support structures as uncontrolled ground currents lead to undesired electrochemical corrosion. The grounding must be performed therefore with specially designed grounding electrodes, situated and designed so, that no electrochemical corrosion occurs.
The grounded conductor, which is called electrode line, when it runs from a converter plant to a grounding electrode, can but must not be mounted on the towers carrying the high-voltage poles of the HVDC scheme. It can also run on a separate line or fixed on towers of AC lines. As it runs into a ground electrode, it can serve as ground wire, whereby the insulators must be equipped with lighting arrestors.
If the towers of an HVDC line carry also a conductor used as grounded return, the voltage must be described with "HVDC voltage ; 0", if not than set just the HVDC voltage. For AC-lines carrying a grounded return conductor of an HVDC scheme, set as voltage "AC voltage(s) ; 0" and as frequency "AC frequencies ; 0".
Ground return conductors of HVDC schemes must be always considered at cable count.
The voltage value 0 for such lines is strictly spoken not correct. In fact, it shows a voltage against ground which is equal to the product of the line current and the sum of ground resistance and resistance of line to grounding point, but as the current value depends on the load and resistance values are often not available, the value 0 is a good choice as it implies, it is grounded.
Examples
A high-voltage transmission line carrying two circuits with a voltage of 110 kV would use the following keys and values:
A transmission line carrying two circuits at 110 kV and one at 66 kV:
- power=line
- name=* or ref=* for Line name or number.
- operator=*
- voltage=110000;110000;66000
- circuits=3
An electrified railway track in Germany with overhead power supply:
Nearly the same for a subway with separate rail for power supply:
A street with overhead wires for trolley buses:
A distribution substation, stepping down the voltage from 11 kV to 400 V for use by houses:
- power=substation
- voltage=11000;400
See also
- amenity=charging_station's are nowadays tagged with socket:<type>:voltage (see details), but voltage=* was used in the past and is still found on some charging station POIs.
- Railway electrification system (en)
- de:Bahnstrom (de)