I had mapped the Hermosa-San Simon-Duhat-Balintawak and Sucat-Taguig-Paco-Araneta-Balintawak transmission lines. Do I have to make reference numbers in straight order as main for disambiguation purposes while those that are placed on the structures (steel poles and lattice towers) as alternative reference numbers like what I did on those two power lines?
Hello and thank you for your work! 
I started reading, wasn’t sure about the context, and had to look it up. I recommend that you mention the Philippines in the text, and tag the thread with philippines so that people can more easily understand the context.
Normally, for country-specific chat there are specific communities within this forum. Looks like there isn’t one for the Philippines. Perhaps time to start one? This was briefly discussed at OSM Philippines Community - #2 by nukeador
In general we use “ground truth”. If a street sign says the name is “Banana Street”, but there are no other source for that name, then name=“Banana Street”. However, if everyone calls it “Apple Street” and official documents use “Apple Street”, and businesses say they are located on “Apple Street” then adding loc_name=“Apple Street” and official_name=“Apple Street” are immensely useful.
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I think that typically the following parts of a power line might have reference numbers and/or names:
- Individual poles and towers.
- Power lines (whether power=line, power=minor_line or power=cable).
- Power circuits.
Individual poles and towers are likely to have at least two numbers. An “asset tag”, which belongs to the physical object, so that it’s history can be traced, e.g. “We bought this pole in 1983 from ACME Timber Supplies. It is from species A and is treated with preservative B. It is 11 metres tall and 350mm diameter. it was installed at location XYZ by Power Company Networks Department in February 1984.”
The pole or tower will then have a location number along a particular line - often using ordinal numbers starting at “Pole 1” and followed by “Pole 2”, “Tower 3”, “Pole 4”, etc. Alternatively “Line 375, Pole 1”, etc. Instead of ordinal numbers, some power operators might use distance from the start of the line (or some other specific point) - locally, catenary pole along railways use this method.
If the line is altered after construction, e.g. an extra pole added at a high wind location or so the line can be branched, I suspect that most power companies have a protocol along the lines of referring to the extra pole between poles 83 and 84 as “83b” or “83.47” to indicate it is 47 metres past pole 83. If poles are removed, the number might or might not be the reused on a replacement or adjacent pole.
I don’t see pole / tower reference numbers as particularly important to OSM. If I see an information plate giving the details, then I’ll add them, but I won’t go looking specially for them. They can however contain other information that might be useful. I do record identities of other parts of the system like transformers or substations.
Power lines might have a name and a reference number. The name might be a specific name: Relation: East-West Interconnector (8184641) | OpenStreetMap or just a description of where it starts and ends: Way: Moneypoint - Dunstown 400 kV (148266327) | OpenStreetMap Additionally, it might have a reference number (letters in this case): Way: Tamnamore - Magherafelt 275kV (230391325) | OpenStreetMap Names and short_name=* tend to be used publicly / colloquially, whereas reference numbers tend to be used in technical and administrative documents.
Then one has power circuits where a particular line might have 6, 9 or 12 cables instead of the usual 3. These cables are then organised into sets of 3 and will then feed a particular transformer or branch line. For example, this: Relation: Maynooth - Ryebrook 110kV (5580020) | OpenStreetMap and this: Relation: Corduff - Rinawade 110kV (5580022) | OpenStreetMap (part not mapped) used to be one line. Two branches were then added (and later altered multiple times). Each line now has 6 cables, with each consumer substation having a supply from each of the bulk supply substations at either end, with the second supply going via the other consumer substation. In such cases, determining exactly what each circuit is called might be difficult to determine. Use of ‘description as name’ might be useful as a placeholder name.
The name or ref goes on the corresponding item. For a pole, use the ref of the pole, for a line, use the ref of the line. Do not use the ref of the line on the pole, unless you use a secondary tag, e.g. bus stops can have a number and a route number: Node: Bridgefoot Street (1426100508) | OpenStreetMap
In all cases, the ref and name should be the ones that the power operator uses. If the power consumer or someone else applies a different identity, that should be listed separately. For example, a large shopping centre might have several transformer and switch rooms that they number “Switch Room 1”, etc., but the power operator calls it “The Mall SR1 987654y”
If there is an obvious error (poles 8,9,11,10,12) or conflict (poles 8,9,11,11,12), then using the predominant pattern might be the way forward.
Yes. No matter how the order of the transmission line is, what is shown on the poles/towers should be the one to be tagged. So I will fix them. Thank you.