High voltage disconnects do not break load! How does it work?

[@ironmartysharpe8293]

That's true indeed , Those switches above are for isolation only , Never to be operated under load , Otherwise they would melt right down to the ground , The circuit breaker has to be tripped open before opening the isolation switches and of course , The lines have to be grounded before doing maintenance and repair , A buddy of mine is a journeyman electrician and one time I helped him change out 3 transformers like you'd see up on the pole but they were set on a concrete pad , He showed me how to use a hot stick and he said that your hot stick is your hands , We made sure that the load was removed from the secondary side of the transformers , The voltage coming in was 13,200 volts and he let me open the isolation switches and he said when you open those switches , You have to do it very quickly , That was really cool of him to let me work with him and the job went without a hitch , He knew I did electrical work on the side and that I was aware of the dangers of high voltage and definitely wore the proper PPE , Personal protection equipment , I do admit I was a bit nervous but I followed every step he told me , He also said that it's natural to be nervous to some degree when going into live electrical equipment and he also said that If you don't get even a little nervous , Then you've got problems because those individuals who don't get even a little nervous , They get overconfident and Complacent in which they are likely to rush through to get the job done and that's when accidents happen I've never had a major electrical accident and I hope I never do But yes , I've been zapped quite a few times and thank God it wasn't higher than 120 volts but it's the nature of the beast , If you want to be an electrician You're gonna get zapped once in awhile , After all , Who ever heard of an electrician that never got zapped or Who ever heard of a plumber that never got a bath or Who ever heard of a carpenter that never smacked his fingers with a hammer or Who ever heard of a cook in the kitchen that never burned himself and cut himself with a knife , like I said Its the nature of the beast and it's gonna happen because at some time We all get caught off guard

[@theonewhowas7709]

those small zaps is like mother natures letting you know who the boss is.. 100%

[@davejoseph5615]

That is an interesting distinction.

[@ianbelletti6241]

Interesting. Now can you tell us how the recloser operates to disconnect the load? I know this equipment is needed at the level of voltage that's being transferred here because the voltage is high enough that you cannot manually operate the switches fast enough.

[@ironmartysharpe8293]

The circuit breakers in a substation can be tripped manually because they are designed to have a manual trip so they can be turned off so maintenance and repair can be done , Most have a button that says Push to trip , Once the circuit breaker is tripped , Then the isolation switches can be opened and the ground wires can be attached All circuit breakers are designed to be tripped manually so maintenance and repair can be done no matter what size they are

[@effedrien]

​@@ironmartysharpe8293that button is not on the breaker itself, no? I was thinking the switch is a few meters away from the actual breaker, mechanically coupled or even motorised so that they can also be switched from a remote control room

[@TomFromYoutube]

What's that thing on the bus insulator? Looks like a fan.

[@reusefull]

Animal protection... to keep squirrels and birds from connecting high voltage to ground.

[@robertlivingston1634]

Only those who have the knowledge of how this equipment operates and are authorized to be there should be anywhere near it.

[@reusefull]

@@robertlivingston1634 100%

[@brytonrobinson6894]

oh come on it cant be that dangerou.......(Electrocution noises)

[@leaderrockmusic]

Speaking from experience, you can break load with them if you rip it open fast enough lol situational though, breaker fire and failed to operate. It’s a 50/50 whether you’ll lock the bus out from the blue dragon 🤣

[@reusefull]

@leaderrockmusic after a switchman managed to open a switch under load and died, there's no one on our system that would try it. Let it burn if bus protection doesn't clear the fault, it's not worth dying for. Most of our buses have protection that would roll a lock-out in that sort of event. I've actually seen a breaker fail, and when the breaker failure protection scheme tried to clear the bus, another breaker failed and then a larger protection scheme transfer tripped to a different substation in order to clear the fault. The protection worked, but it took 30,000 customers out. Many breaker mechanisms were rebuilt and checked after that event.

[@leaderrockmusic]

We have similar bus protection here but everything is changing with GOOSE. Saw a lot of breaker failures when they had a hybrid electromechanical relay teamed with digital and wire down. Hard to input anti-pump logic when one side is electromechanically protected. Too much decision making for a single relay. Same with bifurcated buses. The cheaper way out instead of doing the right thing.