High Voltage ยท 138 kV
We buy 138 kV cable.
Most 138 kV lots are not full reels. They are the tail cut off a termination and the last few hundred feet of a drum, screens and shield still intact.
Call or text the buying desk954-740-1983
Class138 kV, three-phase
Usual formXLPE or pipe-type
What we seeTails and reel ends
Priced onTag, length, test record
Get a buy quote
Send the reel list. A buyer reads it.
Six details are enough to start. Tags and photos can follow by text or email once a buyer has looked at the basics.
- A buyer reviews the lot: construction, footage and condition, not only metal weight
- Copper and aluminium, 600 V building wire through 345 kV cable
- Full reels, partial reels, cut lengths, pallets and truckloads
- No fee, no obligation, and no automatic pickup
Reel list · 138 kV Cable
Reviewed by a buyerTell us what you have and where it sits. Nothing is moved until written lot terms are agreed.
At 138 kV the cable is a transmission asset, so it is specified with a full set of screens, a metallic shield and a jacket thick enough to survive a duct pull. Underground length at this class is short by design: a dip under a crossing, a section through a yard, a run between a transformer and a line terminal. Length is counted in hundreds of feet, not miles, and the reel is ordered for that one route.
That is why the lots look the way they do. A yard rebuild cuts cable back to re-terminate it, and the offcut does not go back on a reel. Sellers end up with tails, reel ends and the occasional untouched spare drum bought for a project that changed shape, which makes the lot small, heavy and unusually well documented for its size.
01
Transmission class, short runs
Most 138 kV line is overhead. Cable appears where overhead will not go: under a highway or rail crossing, through a dense block, or across the last few hundred feet between a yard and the first structure.
Those runs are engineered to the inch. The cable is ordered to a pull schedule, delivered on a small number of large reels, and installed by a crew that has already measured the duct bank twice. Surplus is what did not fit the schedule, not what was left over from a bulk buy.
02
Rebuilds leave tails
When a termination is replaced, the cable is cut back to sound insulation before a new stress cone goes on. That cut leaves a tail of usable cable, often between twenty and eighty feet, with a factory-finished end at one end and a field cut at the other.
Reel ends are the other half of the pattern. A pull that finished early leaves several hundred feet on the drum, tagged and sealed but no longer needed for the job.
- Cut-back tails from terminations and splices
- Reel ends from a completed pull
- Untouched spares from a cancelled upgrade
- Cable removed from a duct during a rebuild
03
Documentation carries the value
A 138 kV lot without paperwork is a hard thing to place. The tag gives the conductor size, the insulation wall and the shield, and the test record says whether the cable was ever proved after installation.
Keep the records with the reel if they still exist. A reel with a factory test report and a clean removal record is priced as reusable cable. The same reel with nothing attached is priced as shielded conductor of a known size, and those are two different numbers.
- Reel tag with size, wall and footage
- Factory test report or certificate
- Field test result from before removal
- Circuit and yard the cable came out of
- Whether the end seals are factory or field applied
04
Length matters more than weight here
A forty-foot tail of 138 kV cable cannot become a transmission run again. It can still be spliced into a training set, used for termination practice, or cut for yard jumpers, and the conductor and shield inside it are the same metal as a full drum.
So the tail is not junk, but it is not a reel. Sellers who present tails as if they were reels are usually disappointed by the first number they hear. Sellers who separate the tails from the reel ends get a cleaner answer on both.
| Item | Typical size | Usable as |
|---|---|---|
| Reel end, XLPE | 750 to 2000 kcmil | Cable, if tested |
| Cut-back tail | 500 to 1500 kcmil | Short run or jumper |
| Spare drum, unopened | To project schedule | Cable on the tag |
| Pipe-type section | 500 to 2000 kcmil | Breakdown, with oil note |
Questions
Answers before you send anything.
If your question is not here, call the desk. A buyer answers, not a call centre.
Is a short tail worth collecting at all?
Yes, if there is enough of it to make a load. Tails are priced on metal content plus whatever length premium the size supports. A single two-foot offcut is not a lot; a pallet of them from one rebuild is.
What if the test records were never kept?
Then the cable is quoted as untested. That is not a rejection, but it does change the basis: untested 138 kV is priced on size, shield and weight, and any premium for reuse has to be earned back by testing.
Can cable that was in a duct be reused?
Sometimes. Duct removal puts skid marks and scuffs on cable that is otherwise sound, and neither changes the price. A jacket that is cut through is different, and it should be pointed out before the quote.
Do you buy the terminations as well?
Terminations, stress cones and separable connectors are worth identifying separately. They are not cable and they are not priced like it, but a rebuild often produces both, and they can travel on the same truck.
Keep reading
Related pages
No fee · no obligation
You have the cable. We have a scale and a check.
Send the reel list, the tags or a photograph of the pallet. A buyer comes back with what the lot is worth and how pickup would work, before anything is moved.
954-740-1983 Call or text
- Reel tags, or the print on the jacket
- Reel count and footage, even roughly
- Where it sits and what can reach it
- Whether the cable is still energised