Bonding Requirements for Conductive Poles: Preventing Electrical Isolation of Poles

The increasing load density at many electric utilities has driven the trend toward larger distribution conductors and higher settings on overcurrent protective equipment. Not only are the pickup values of feeder breakers and reclosers increasing, but the protective curves are often slower to achieve coordination with downstream devices. Where there are larger conductors and slower protective settings, you will often find more applications of steel and concrete distribution poles to carry the structural loads imposed by the larger conductors.