[crote]

> I’m pretty sure that all overhead utility distribution conductors are a steel core wrapped with aluminum conductors

That's the classical setup, but there's been some innovation. These days there's also stuff like aluminium alloys which don't need steel reinforcement, or aluminium reinforced with carbon fiber.

But indeed, copper is vanishingly rare.

[quickthrowman]

Thanks for the additional info, I’m interested in learning more technical details about the electrical grid, like conductor size/ampacity but it’s hard to dig up information about it. I work in commercial construction and the highest voltages I ever deal with are 4160V and sometimes 5kV and 15kV, so I know a bit about medium voltage equipment and conductors but I’d like to know more about the utility side.

[philipkglass]

Are you on a mobile device? Ampacity charts for aluminum conductor steel-reinforced cable are pretty easy to find but most of them appear to be PDFs, like this one:

https://www.prioritywire.com/specs/acsr.pdf

Cables in that table are rated for between 105 to 1,751 amps under these conditions:

"Current ratings based on 75˚C conductor temperature, 25˚C ambient temperature, emissivity 0.5, 2ft/sec wind in sun"