High Voltage

[DurhamSparky]

i feel dead lucky to work on a site with 2009 ABB Switch gear installed through out!!

 

[alarm man]

i got a pair of them gloves..!!! not got a sexy suit though... company drew a line under budget!!

View attachment 11409

pah..i bought wor lass some of them to wash the dishes...

 

[DurhamSparky]

lol..... hey probably same stuff man!! just £50 more expensive

 

[alarm man]

lol..... hey probably same stuff man!! just £50 more expensive

i hope not,she fails at the dishes never mind hv...now theres a thought..:love:

 

[Andy 7671]

Type in "2.00 arc flash interior substation racking breaker" on you tube.

Removed one from a PCC once, and by removed I mean unbolted from decommissioned panel and put on pallet.

We then put in new panel, connected busbars under German supervision. we wore latex gloves cleaned the bars with proprietry cleaner, he then has us brush twice, in an opposing diagonal with brass brush before assembly.

We then bolted in a new rack. It was dead, the whole area was dead, I was trying to understand the drawings on the wall, like why would you have a switch or capacitor on the earth.. the jokers would ratchet it up and press the button, just for the craic,

The endless waiting for permits to be signed ensures a pretty safe system of work, didnt want to be alarmist. if you watched video, dont have enough experience to say anymore.

Thats it really, in hindsight it is probably the job Im most proud of

 

[Knobhead]

Not all of it was ancient, the system grew since the 1930’s onward. From it’s early days we had our own power station, as time went on the system was finally connected to the national grid (this is when it was found out the internal system ran reversed to the grid). At this point the power station was shut down for good. But the 11KV incomers were reversed.

As plants expanded or new plants installed switchgear that was current at the time was added. Ferguson Paillin gear (in last photo) had VCB’s cobbled on to the board. I got lumbered with that job on one plant.

To go around the works was like a time warp!

DMO switchgear is a nightmare, it fights back when you try to switch it on load. The load tries to force the contacts apart as your closing them. Magnetic forces and the oil vaporising are trying to stop you closing the switch, fail and the oil tank can explode!

OK I’m mad, but I wouldn’t swap a moment of it, but there again I got away with it!

 

[DurhamSparky]

****ing hell...!!

i will stick to 21st century equpitment!! i remember when i was at the mod there was a huge fan in a room that was abandoned!!
had paper work from 1943 in the room and old news papers etc.... al the signage was nicely hand painted and look really eeery!!

when you mentiooned the time warp it came back to me.. there was me playing with 1990's chillers and starters and behnid the wall next to me was pre war ventilation equiptment

 

[Engineer54]

i feel dead lucky to work on a site with 2009 ABB Switch gear installed through out!!

One of the most badly designed and installed MV main switchboard was an ABB board!! Take the full height back panel off one of the cubicles (with no handles to hold) and there staring at you was the bare bus-bars just above head height!! never seen anything like it before, ...Bus-bars in MV switchboards are normally run in there own chamber that are completely separated access wise, from the rest of the panels having there own cover plates etc...

I much prefer the Merlin Gerin (Schneider) MV switchboards myself where the bus-bars are safely tucked down low and always insulated with easy access to the bolted sections (after removing cover plate) from the cable gully...

 

[DurhamSparky]

yeah the back panels on our have no handles!! we improvised with a suction lifter!!

 

[Knobhead]

The original 1930’s gear was eventually embargoed “no live switching” so a fault would be a major upheaval. The 11KV Ferguson Paillin gear had new trucks fitted, the 3.3KV remained DMO.

The plant I spent most of my time on set off with just two 250KVA 550V transformers. When I finished there was two 750KVA 550V, four 1000KVA and a 500KVA 440V transformers. It had grown a bit.

Across the works I installed 13.8MVA of transformers and switchgear. the place was forever changing and expanding.

It was fun but bloody hard work. In one substation upgrade I had to solder 56 lugs or ferules to 500mm singles in two days.

 

[Knobhead]

Thing ain't changed that much then, take the back off Ferguson Paillin gear and there's lots of stuff to kill you. Again no handles!

 

[Engineer54]

Durham,

Are they full height back panels too, that expose the bus-bars?? Those full height back panels are heavy and NEED handles on them at the very least... Don't know why they wouldn't have installed an inner cover to the bus-bar chambers to at least keep them separated from the rest of the cubicle...

I have to say though, that there SF6 66KV switchboards are pretty good, couldn't fault those at all on the ones i've seen so far!!

 

[DurhamSparky]

the LV stuff is about 7ft high and about 6-700 wide...

the HV stuff is pretty much the same apart from they have encased a separate chamber at the rear that sits back from the board and has all connections etc...

if i believe rightly the HV bus A+B sits at the bottom UNDER the Circuit Breakers, i have not took apart the unit yet as its still shiny shiny and due to the nature of the building, turning it off for maintenance is made up at a government ministerial level...!!

possibly learnt from previous mistakes...!! we do on the 3000kva stuf have a exposed bus that runs about head height but it has a perspex cover in place after you remove rear access panel... not much to save you but stops you pushing fingers and head in..!

 

[Engineer54]

the LV stuff is about 7ft high and about 6-700 wide...

the HV stuff is pretty much the same apart from they have encased a separate chamber at the rear that sits back from the board and has all connections etc...

if i believe rightly the HV bus A+B sits at the bottom UNDER the Circuit Breakers, i have not took apart the unit yet as its still shiny shiny and due to the nature of the building, turning it off for maintenance is made up at a government ministerial level...!!

possibly learnt from previous mistakes...!! we do on the 3000kva stuf have a exposed bus that runs about head height but it has a perspex cover in place after you remove rear access panel... not much to save you but stops you pushing fingers and head in..!

Yes i remember the the photo's you posted showing the MV cables dropping from above tray work to the extended connection chambers towards the base of the cubicles...

You shouldn't need to switch off a complete switchboard to replace a fuse in the moving voltage transformer, just the cubicle your working on which was exactly what the electricians were doing on that ABB panel...

I've seen so many different ABB MV switchboards, it's hard to say if they have a set designs for them!! ...lol!!
Don't have much of a problem with ABB LV switchboards, but still prefer MG stuff, but that's probably more to do with me being more conversant with them, than ABB or other manufacturers ..lol!! As far as RMU's the MG design has got to be the standard that everyone else strives to meet or better...

 

[vaughant]

I did the Hv course back in July and it was very interesting,scary stuff though!!!
I've been in the game of medium/ heavy industry/control for nearly 20 years and there was no way I could have passed the exam after 5 days,there's a lot to it.
Tonys right on the £1500 bit but I think the exams a day course and test for another £500.
The questions are pretty much given to you regarding the written part but you need to do the switching program yourself and take the examiner round with you.
If you pass the switching program but fail the exam you can resit the exam only but if you fail the switching program you fail the lot.
It's mainly mechanical work your doing and as said above the switching should be done for you in your actual job so pretty safe overall although it's near enough guaranteed death if you make a mistake.