Classic 275,000 volt, 15,000Mva JW420 bulk oil breaker

Mark W · Sep 22, 2022

The above picture was taken at the festival of Britain and it shows a BTH bulk oil breaker, for me this represents the development of the super grid and how Britain was able to assist the world in developing higher transmission voltages.

These units are still in service and in only a few years time they will all be gone with no efforted being made to save at least one example. They have now all exceeded their design life by decades in most cases and have kept the lights on whilst the rest of the world continues with its progression. This breaker was developed in the very early 1950's and only a decade or so before, it was thought that 132kv was the maximum voltage to be used.

No one is trying to save this kit and in a few years time I think several organisations will want to turn the clock back to at least save some examples, walking into a science museum and being presented with this monster would be pretty impressive!!

My personal campaign is to do this, obtain the kit, hide it away and then release it all back into the public eye when people think it has all been scrapped and disposed off.

So, you need to find one first that is being removed in a careful fashion, the problem being that when something like this is being removed the pressure on the engineers to replace with new is massive, no time for sentimental thoughts.......flame torch, get it out!

Load it on to the back of a wagon,

Ensure it is strapped down.

Follow it down the motorway

Install the bushings.

Then have ago at the lad who helped me for not wearing any safety gear!!!

We now have one, to go with the other items I will slowly drip on to this forum.

I have since made contact with the daughter of one of the chief designers of this breaker and she is over the moon that one phase has now been saved for future generations.

Just by chance, one of the very few clips on youtube showing one of these in operation is this very breaker, no link to that film maker just pure luck!

I will start to add some details about how this works and how it could possibly be rated at 275Kv at 15,000Mva

DPG · Sep 22, 2022

Mark W said:
View attachment 101835

The above picture was taken at the festival of Britain and it shows a BTH bulk oil breaker, for me this represents the development of the super grid and how Britain was able to assist the world in developing higher transmission voltages.

These units are still in service and in only a few years time they will all be gone with no efforted being made to save at least one example. They have now all exceeded their design life by decades in most cases and have kept the lights on whilst the rest of the world continues with its progression. This breaker was developed in the very early 1950's and only a decade or so before, it was thought that 132kv was the maximum voltage to be used.

No one is trying to save this kit and in a few years time I think several organisations will want to turn the clock back to at least save some examples, walking into a science museum and being presented with this monster would be pretty impressive!!

My personal campaign is to do this, obtain the kit, hide it away and then release it all back into the public eye when people think it has all been scrapped and disposed off.

So, you need to find one first that is being removed in a careful fashion, the problem being that when something like this is being removed the pressure on the engineers to replace with new is massive, no time for sentimental thoughts.......flame torch, get it out!

View attachment 101836

Load it on to the back of a wagon,

View attachment 101837

Ensure it is strapped down.

View attachment 101838

Follow it down the motorway

View attachment 101839

Install the bushings.

View attachment 101840

Then have ago at the lad who helped me for not wearing any safety gear!!!

We now have one, to go with the other items I will slowly drip on to this forum.

I have since made contact with the daughter of one of the chief designers of this breaker and she is over the moon that one phase has now been saved for future generations.

Just by chance, one of the very few clips on youtube showing one of these in operation is this very breaker, no link to that film maker just pure luck!

I will start to add some details about how this works and how it could possibly be rated at 275Kv at 15,000Mva

View attachment 101841

Very interesting. I imagine the guy who's got pretty much a full substation in his spare room will be impressed!

Mark W · Sep 22, 2022

DPG said:
Very interesting. I imagine the guy who's got pretty much a full substation in his spare room will be impressed!

That may be me!

DPG · Sep 22, 2022

Mark W said:
That may be me!

Ah, so it is! Well, you've got the garden ornament sorted now

timhoward · Sep 22, 2022

An amazing effort. I'm highly impressed! It would be interesting to learn more about how it works in due course.

Lucien Nunes · Sep 22, 2022

No one is trying to save this kit

Not strictly true. I'm working along similar lines specifically heading towards forming a fully-fledged publicly accessible museum of electrical technology. To ensure its survival it needs to offer a constructive and exciting learning experience for future generations, not just enthusiasts of vintage heavy switchgear. That can mean collecting and displaying 134 hairdryers for every supergrid oil circuit breaker, if that turns out to be an effective mode of engagement*. If we make such a success of hairdryers that we gain enough recognition to raise the funds to save the OCB, then we're in luck. Not everything works out, it's early days.

I'll send you a PM. It sounds like we might have some interesting collaborative potential.

*Spoiler: It is. People love hairdryers and vacuum cleaners and with a couple of each as props, I can teach the most technophobic visitor about energy efficiency in a fun and memorable way.

Mark W · Sep 22, 2022

Lucien Nunes said:
Not strictly true. I'm working along similar lines specifically heading towards forming a fully-fledged publicly accessible museum of electrical technology. To ensure its survival it needs to offer a constructive and exciting learning experience for future generations, not just enthusiasts of vintage heavy switchgear. That can mean collecting and displaying 134 hairdryers for every supergrid oil circuit breaker, if that turns out to be an effective mode of engagement*. If we make such a success of hairdryers that we gain enough recognition to raise the funds to save the OCB, then we're in luck. Not everything works out, it's early days.

I'll send you a PM. It sounds like we might have some interesting collaborative potential.

*Spoiler: It is. People love hairdryers and vacuum cleaners and with a couple of each as props, I can teach the most technophobic visitor about energy efficiency in a fun and memorable way.

Totally agree, 99.9 % of people are not interested in the technical aspect or the supergrid! but if you make it fun then yes......if this means you have to almost dumb down the technical aspect to save a piece of kit then that is what is needed. You need punters through the doors of a museum and not geeks like us, this for it to survive to allow this kit to be saved.

I am just finishing of a water pumping station project that has some decent amounts of DC equipment from the local area. etc, no one is interested in that aspect (DC switchgear, pumps and a very rare generator) but the social history and the ability for people to relate to their local area means that the few people who have seen it, so far are fascinated.

I also own one of the very last triple expansion steam engines built in Britain to power a ship, a dredger in fact that dredged Preston docks......people are interested in the history of Preston docks through talking about the engine, not the actual engine itself!

DPG · Sep 22, 2022

I definitely need a trip to Stafford at some point!

littlespark · Sep 22, 2022

I’ve seen similar picture in a superhero comic book….. it doesn’t end well, but there’s some adventures along the way.

Mark W · Sep 22, 2022

What is incredible is that someone who I do not know managed to film this very breaker a few days before it was taken out of service. This breaker is bus-coupler WV10 as can be seen in the film on the centre phase oil tank, the WV10 can also be seen on the above Mechbox on the side of my breaker. Item at 4.20 in the clip is the tinpot nasty SF6 breaker that has now replaced it, I wonder how years this is going to last!! At about 6.30 in the clip the yodel alarm sounds before the breaker operates. The last thing I would want to do is to be anywhere near one of these when switching as a few have now blown up with the associated ceramic shrapnel followed by oil explosion/fire!, even when stood the other side of the compound fence.

I think this is the only film on youtube to show a bulk oil 275kv breaker in operation which is bonkers.

DPG · Sep 22, 2022

Mark W said:
What is incredible is that someone who I do not know managed to film this very breaker a few days before it was taken out of service. This breaker is bus-coupler WV10 as can be seen in the film on the centre phase oil tank, the WV10 can also be seen on the above Mechbox on the side of my breaker. Item at 4.20 in the clip is the tinpot nasty SF6 breaker that has now replaced it, I wonder how years this is going to last!! At about 6.30 in the clip the yodel alarm sounds before the breaker operates. The last thing I would want to do is to be anywhere near one of these when switching as a few have now blown up with the associated ceramic shrapnel followed by oil explosion/fire!, even when stood the other side of the compound fence.

I think this is the only film on youtube to show a bulk oil 275kv breaker in operation which is bonkers.

He could do with some image stabilisation - that was like an electrical engineer's version of the Blair Witch Project!

Julie. · Sep 22, 2022

From memory, (which isn't very good) I think this interrupts via shuntarc with four-break multi cross-jet expulsion pots.

Mechanism is pneumatic of course.

Probably the most spectacular testing failure I ever witnessed was using shuntarc - and part of it was my design (but not my failure).

They are replacing all these breakers as their design life has been well exceeded, and of course the partial discharge issues with the bushings, so a 10m+ exclusion zone whilst live!

Aaron b · Sep 22, 2022

There's a museum of power in Maldon Essex, Essex and Suffolk Water own. Not been in there myself but was involved in connecting a sub main from there to a pump station nearby. I doubt it compares to what you are trying to achieve. There's some great engineering about that people don't get to see.

pc1966 · Sep 22, 2022

Mark W said:
I think this is the only film on youtube to show a bulk oil 275kv breaker in operation which is bonkers.

It looks like that substation has an electric fence inside the metal palisade railings?

Effective I'm sure, and strangely appropriate...

jay sean · Sep 24, 2022

pc1966 said:
It looks like that substation has an electric fence inside the metal palisade railings?

Effective I'm sure, and strangely appropriate...

Most National Grid sub stations are protected by electric fences, but Ive been to some where you still get visitors who want to and will steal copper!!!

Classic 275,000 volt, 15,000Mva JW420 bulk oil breaker

Mark W

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