transformer oopsies

[buddhakii]

Got a slight issue on a project. Pad mount customer owned 13.2kv to 480 customer owned transformer. Underground conduits concrete encased. Pad poured. Went to set tranny today and oops, primary and secondary are backward. Not my fault as all this was done before I set foot on project, but it is now my solution.

Proposal: LB on 4 inch conduit on right side and poke through the center divider to get to the left side. Fabricate a removeable divider plate running horizontally on the bottom of the tranny and chase nipple center divider to get secondary to the left side.

Option # 2: Jackhammer everything up. Not really what I want to do obviously. Any way around this?

 

[John Arendt]

Could you 'turn' the tranny 180 degrees??

 

[Hv&Lv]

Got a slight issue on a project. Pad mount customer owned 13.2kv to 480 customer owned transformer. Underground conduits concrete encased. Pad poured. Went to set tranny today and oops, primary and secondary are backward. Not my fault as all this was done before I set foot on project, but it is now my solution.

Proposal: LB on 4 inch conduit on right side and poke through the center divider to get to the left side. Fabricate a removeable divider plate running horizontally on the bottom of the tranny and chase nipple center divider to get secondary to the left side.

Option # 2: Jackhammer everything up. Not really what I want to do obviously. Any way around this?

I've had that happen before. Contractor poured the pad wrong. We pulled our wire in, then fed a 90 over the wire and the wire through the center divider. attached the 90 to the center divider with a male adaptor. Helped the electrician do the secondary side the same way. It actually looks good, just don't glue anything together. Not sure if the LB will be okay on minimum bending radius...

 

[hillbilly1]

Since it's customer owned, you probably could get away with it, but poco's will not allow it due to it not being easily changed if it fails. Moving it to one side or the other and repiping just one of the feeds, and pouring a bigger pad is another option. Not an easy way to fix this oops! I feel your pain though, I had to come behind a completed 1600 amp manual transfer switch and service that was complete and operational, at least until they tried hooking up a generator and tried to power the city of Charleston. :roll:

 

[Hv&Lv]

Since it's customer owned, you probably could get away with it, but poco's will not allow it due to it not being easily changed if it fails.

That is true. I wouldn't have done that if it were our XF. We were helping a rock quarry wire their XF in to our primary metering point. Its amazing what you will do for large users

 

[buddhakii]

Thanks guys, you have shined a little bit of light on a dark situation. I thought about doing 90's but that would put them right in front of the h.v. elbows. I guess I could hammer a little to drop the 90's a little. Trying to cover my p.m.'s butt cause he layed all this out and installed it before I got there.

On a side note one of the buildings me and my apprentice was working in last friday had the front door jam ripped away from the block from the wind. Apparently we forgot to latch the side with the levers on the inside of the door and it blew open over the weekend. I I I what a day:weeping:

 

[brian john]

Have a company make a transition box for the transformer to sit on.

 

[hurk27]

Can't you order the pad mount tranny with a right side LV and left side HV? we had this happen many moons ago and we sent it back but it was the manufactures fault, as it was a tight location and a right side LV was all that would work, they sent a left side LV, they sent new one out and truck took back the wrong one.

 

[buddhakii]

Sending back the transformer and getting the hv and lv swapped may be an option. Right now the hv is on the left and lv is on the right.

 

[Hv&Lv]

Sending back the transformer and getting the hv and lv swapped may be an option. Right now the hv is on the left and lv is on the right.

Yea, check on that... IF it can be done, It will be a safe bet it will be much cheaper to get out the jackhammers and start over...

 

[buddhakii]

So ya I'm thinking the jackhammer is the correct option. Hopefully I can just cut a trench in the slab deep enough to kick the coduits over enough and turn 180. Conduits will be coming up at a pretty good angle, but I think that will actually help with wire pulling. Today was a weekly progress meeting and the boss allways comes out for it. My pm didn't tell him about it because he says he wants to figure out a solution first. I wanted to come clean today but I want to give the pm a chance to do it since it was pretty much his f up. If he's not ready to say anything next tuesday I guess it's gonna have to be me that breaks the news. Luckily we are not in a huge rush to get it energized.

 

[masterinbama]

I would lean toward repairing or modifying the pad and spin the tranny 180 degrees. Anything you do inside the transformer will take a lot of time and cause trouble swapping the tranny out down the road. A little concrete work is a lot cheaper than a lot of electricians time rigging something that will end up looking like a pile of hammered doggie doo.

 

[buddhakii]

So I gave my pm some suggestions. I'll leave it in his court for now as it is his baby. I will keep you all posted on the final solution. I know what I would do but he doesn't like that idea. I would see if there is anyway to extend the pad and flip 180. If that is not possible I would jackhammer up the pad and re-do conduit. I think I could get down far enough to kick the pipes enough to flip 180. At any rate thanks for all your input.

 

[hillbilly1]

Sending back the transformer and getting the hv and lv swapped may be an option. Right now the hv is on the left and lv is on the right.

Most of the poco's around here have their transformers that way, maybe you can luck out and get one with them swapped. I know it's been mentioned by another poster about using a riser under the transformer, but what might be easier could be a precast pad on top of what you already have, they make them with a opening all the way across both sides.