Copper busbars offer excellent electrical conductivity and can carry high current with a smaller cross-section. The downside is higher cost and weight. In one sentence: medium-voltage switchgear busbars usually use copper because copper delivers higher electrical conductivity, more stable joints, better thermal behavior, stronger short-circuit withstand, and a more compact cabinet design than aluminum in most real commercial and industrial. In this new edition the calculation of current-carrying capacity has been greatly simplified by the provision of exact formulae for some common busbar configurations and graphical methods for others. Depending on construction, the bars may be bare or insulated (e. They connect the power source (such as the output terminal of a transformer) to various branches (such as the incoming terminals of circuit breakers), acting as a transfer station for electrical energy.
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