Sparks Fly as BPA Tests New Equipment at Celilo Converter Station

A shower of sparks at the Celilo Converter Station in The Dalles, Oregon, heralds a carefully planned test by the Bonneville Power Administration of $370 million of new equipment supporting the largest high-voltage DC transmission line in the country, the Pacific Direct Current Intertie.

[@michaelmcfeely6588]

About 1992 I went to the Celilo Converter Station on a Sunday morning, stuck my head in a door, and found a guy who gave me a tour. This of course was before terrorism concerns. We went into the valve room and saw the operating valves. At that time they were using both the old mercury and the new thyristor valves. So cool.

[@rolandlastname5532]

Hoop test. I was at some of these tests at Celilo, you will never forget. They shoot a piece of plastic pipe with air pressure up through 2 metal rings (hoop). The lower ring is grounded. The upper ring is at high voltage, e.g. 500.000 volt DC. The trigger is with 50 meter of fibre optic cable and a manual button. You don't want to stand close to the test, high voltage is dangerous. The plastic pipe uncoils a thin metallic wire. When the plastic rocket passes through the upper hoop, the full voltage appear across just a few centimeters of air betwee hoop and wire, and will arc. Then the arc melts the entire wire and turns into a meters long arc. Because its DC, controlled by thyristors, the arc is put out in some 20 millisecond. Actually, the short circuit current is not even that high, because of thyristor control. The test is to see if all protective and logging equipment is working. Also sequences for recovery and reclose of switches. Better than wait and see what happens if somewhere along the line a short circuit happens. In such uncontrolled events some cities may get dark.

[@fshn4x4]

It was definitely something we needed to make sure worked with the number of fire induced faults we saw in the next few years. ABB made a solid (not perfect but good) control system with the Mach3. I lost quite a few nights to late trouble calls, but overall the system got it done.

[@hugoboyce9648]

Very interesting comment! Thank you

[@อาคมมากบุญ-ภ7ฐ]

Thankyou

[@stormeagle28]

Looks like earth fault testing, they shoot a small wire across the isolators which ignites the arc. But what is this good for?

[@weeardguy]

The first thing you want to know is what the damage, done by heat from the explosion is when a fault like this occurs. The arc itself is very hot and could sustain itself in a bad situation. Scorched insulator-surfaces could also provide a good conducting path to keep a short alive, something you really don't want. The second part of the test is to see which forces the structure have to endure during a short. The huge electromagnetic forces that develop during a short circuit can cause excessive damage or even failure to structural supports and conductors themselves.

[@ytgmbutler]

It provides data for the protective relays with a staged fault in order to verify things work in real life like they do on paper...

[@Schrasma]

I think they wanz to know how fast the switching System is and at what distancte to ground something will Trigger the Fuse

[@fshn4x4]

@@Schrasma Basically, but this was actually a much more exotic test from an electrical engineering perspective. As a DC system, a breaker or fuse cannot interrupt the current because there is no voltage zero so instead the thyristor valve control system has to detect the fault much quicker than a typical AC system and take a much more complicated protective action to extinguish the arc. I was actually there during this testing.

[@Schrasma]

what is this "thing" flying up and exploding shortly after?

[@Engineer9736]

merlinimm Is there anything else in this video then? You could also just have asked what is happening in this video ;-)

[@linuxbrad]

My guess is it's a rocket or projectile with a length of wire behind it, that they're using to cause a fault (brief short-circuit) each time.

[@gtavlossantosisadriverstown]

Hi, This is really what is behind ur light switch. The only way to make it safe is to turn it off. The only way to keep it on is safely. that goes for those that keep it on and those that get to enjoy the benefits of electricity itself. Certain liberties are taken. testing between equipment by simulating a fault or a lightning strike on the lines

[@RickyJr46]

Spark-tacular! ✨💥✨

[@vgbeastbomb8327]

How much volts is in the substation

[@ibezag0]

Daniel Gopal Either 345kv 500kv 750kv

[@armaanroshani]

the 500kV figure is single pole to ground though, pole to pole it's 1MV.

[@fshn4x4]

Because it's High Voltage DIRECT Current there is a resistive drop over the length of the line(s) from the rectifying (sending power) end to the inverting (receiving power) end. I worked there as an engineer for four years. Typically the station sends hydro power south, so the drop from The Dalles OR to Sylmar CA is like 20kV and the inverter end is held to (+/-)500kV so the rectifier end floats up to (+/-)520kV. Heck, I was out in those little buildings pushing a record button during these tests ^_^ *pucker factor*.

[@rakhidas1582]

Wow amazing

[@gilbertstevenson8749]

That's when you start energizing stuff like that that's what happens a deadline at 40 and 50 KV it's called energizing the system

[@อาคมมากบุญ-ภ7ฐ]

Ok

[@gilbertstevenson8749]

Everything is hot and energized now

[@Videogamer-555]

At 0:09 why are they launching a grenade with a timed fuse?

[@samschannel531]

Videogamer555 that ain’t a grenade. That’s a wire. They deliberately caused an arc to test equipment and so much electricity flowed through the wire that it vaporized and became a plasma instantly.