I would be interested in any comments on this subject, or any reports good or bad.
It would be great if someone here grows bamboo and is a lineman for the power company, then we should be able to read an authoritative and informed response.

A few issues that might be discussed
-- Power line companies usually have a minimum clearance height standard, but such a standard is largely based on trees that keep getting taller each year. Bamboo pretty much reaches a height and stops....... right? So if the standard is 15 feet and the bamboo gets within 10 and stops, is it no longer a threat to the power line. Also, at least in rural areas where there is a hot line and a ground line run the hot line is the upper and the ground line is the lower.

-- Has anyone had a running bamboo grove get close to a power line, get sprayed at that point and lost much or all of the grove?

-- if there are a few over-eager culms that are getting up to within the minimum clearance limit, just lopping them with a pole pruner before they actually get close should stop them. ......... right

-- speaking of pole pruners.... mine has a two piece telescoping fibre glass pole. Comments ???

-- In heavy weather bamboo groves get flattened, thereby increasing the clearance to power wires. That should be a good thing But in an ice storm the wires may be permanently sagged, when the ice melts the wires don't go back up but the bamboo does. ........ comments

-- is there any good way to top off a bamboo grove that is near a power wire? For instance a grove topped off at 12 feet would easily meet my local power companie's 15 foot minimum clearance with room to spare. From what I have seen the bamboo pretty much stops growing when it is topped like that and the topping lasts until next year's crop of new culms, so it would be pretty much a once per year trim. The power company here does not mind fruit trees on the right of way as long as pruning keeps their minimum clearance.

-- I have seen the local power company tolerate local trees growing up to and past the power lines by as much as 20 or more feet before they get around to trimming them back. Would bamboo be any more or less of a problem than trees. Short of some 70 foot timber bamboo or the like I just can't see bamboo bringing down the line like a falling branch would.

-- The local power company did nothing about trees growing up around the lines in my part of the county until I complained that every time it rained that I could not get AM band reception on my radio anywhere near the power line or the wiring in my house until the trees dried out. Does anything like this happen with bamboo?

Ok, that should be enough pump priming....... feel free to comment on the above or any other electrical utility related issues not mentioned above.

This topic came up last year, but I do not know how to link to old thread.

If you prune each year so it is below lines by a few feet it should be fine. A fiberglass handle pole saw is better than metal, but they do make commercial ones that are certified non conducting, that would be the one to use if routinely pruning anything that is touching wire.

Not sure of voltage of the service where you refer to lower line being ground, but it if it is not hot, it is neutral, not ground. Ground is the metal stake by your service or a clamp to metal piping. Neutral and ground are often confused but not the same. I would not assume it is safe to make contact with any overhead electric wire unless using proper gear and knowing what you are doing.

What you do not want to be is the path to ground by contacting, even indirectly, those wires. I have been shocked by a small tree branch on power line, though a chainsaw, rubber soled winter boots while standing in rubber tire loader bucket, there was probably a wet branch touching loader. Dry bamboo is pretty non conductive, probably safer than tree branches, but with the stakes being your life, best to be careful.

I would expect that but I made a search and found nothing, so if anyone knows where the link is, please advise.

Perhaps the weak link in electrical protection there is the rope that pulls the lopper mechanism. The rope can become wet and highly conductive. In that case using the lopper would need to be before the bamboo gets close to a hot wire. and hopefully the pole pruner is short enough that it simply cannot reach a hot wire itself.

This is always an inconvenient point of confusion, however on our system, at every pole this neutral/ground wire (whatever) is connected to the ground wire on the pole which is connected to the copper ground plate on the bottom of the pole under the ground. The distinction between neutral and ground is valid for inside a building where the Ground wire (usually bare or green insulated) is never part of a power carrying circuit and is present to provide a direct short to ground that will trip the breaker or fuse should the hot wire ever come in contact with the appliance frame. To add to the confusion when one gets to the main power panel in the building, the neutral and ground are connected to each other and to a ground stake driven next to the building. Additionally around here where the earth is not all that good of a conductor, a volt meter connected between the ground wire and some damp earth will show a voltage of as much as 10 volts, but usually 3 or 4 volts.

On the pole I have never heard of it being called other than ground but then people tend to get sloppy with technical terms. The voltage on the hot line on the pole is somewhat over 7000 volts

Disclaimer: The next paragraph is more technical than most bamboo growers will probably care for.
The reason for the voltage on the ground/neutral being other than zero is largely due to each of the neighborhood distribution lines being one of three phases of a three phase power grid but the ground/neutral lines are all connected. When three different neighborhoods are using different amounts of power, the ground/neutral wire tries to balance the difference and shows a voltage based on how much it has to carry to equalize things. The three neighborhoods feeding from a single 3 phase supply essentially become an unbalanced "Y" connected load. In the region where I live the earth is such a poor conductor that even grounding at every pole will not hold the line to 0 volts. If you really have to have a good ground around here you have to bury a grid of ground wires in an area of soil that has been dug up and laced with copper sulphate and that likely won't be perfect especially in dry weather. ....... Ok, I will take my engineer hat off and put my gardening straw hat back on.

Amen to that (and hopefully not being pronounced over your casket).

[quote="dgoddard"/ ]
On the pole I have never heard of it being called other than ground but then people tend to get sloppy with technical terms. The voltage on the hot line on the pole is somewhat over 7000.[/quote]

Pretty sure that is a neutral, as it is balancing loads between phases or services, like you long technical paragraph said. Calling the lower line a ground seems to make it sound safe. It may bonded to ground, like neutral is in your house panel, but the wire probably has current in it at times or they would not have bothered to string it.

But I am not an electrician, lineman or engineer. (but I do play with generators as one of my other hobbies) So whatever, don't touch the wires.