Shutdown Tips

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under8ed

Senior Member
Our facility of nearly 1 million square ft. is having a rare total electrical shutdown for maintenance this weekend. There is an aggressive schedule of work planned by our electrical engineer. The work is dealing with the high voltage gear, switches, breakers, & transformers and will be performed by trusted contractors. My primary job here is machine installation & relocations, but I am in the same department as the engineers responsible for the facility. The double E only has a couple years here; & since I have many, I will be on site to assist in any way needed. How can I best support our engineer during a busy shutdown?
 

under8ed

Senior Member
Ok, my wording probably asked for that.
Seriously though, this is possibly the most important shut down our department has organized in many years.
All involved are confidant the planning is complete and the team of employees and contractors are well prepared.
That said, I still have hopes some constructive tips & insights may be offered here.
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Ok, my wording probably asked for that.
Seriously though, this is possibly the most important shut down our department has organized in many years.
All involved are confidant the planning is complete and the team of employees and contractors are well prepared.
That said, I still have hopes some constructive tips & insights may be offered here.

With your experience you have probably gone through any number of less-than-ideal turnarounds. As my daddy used to say, "Have a plan "B". Even if you don't have a plan "A", have a plan "B"". Contingency planning could well mean the difference between success and nearly unmitigated disaster. When you have a tight plan, as soon as it starts to unravel it starts to blow things out of the time frame. If "X" goes wrong, is there any way to salvage "Y" and "Z" that were child activities? If an activity has no work-around, are you prepared to cut your losses rather than sink vast sums of money into a black hole? Sometimes (most times?) management is so divorced from reality, they think that offering a premium for a one-of-a-kind part will get it in two days rather than 20 weeks when the fact of the matter is, it's going to be 20 weeks and you should have ordered it 22 weeks ago.
 

ActionDave

Chief Moderator
Staff member
Location
Durango, CO, 10 h 20 min from the winged horses.
Occupation
Licensed Electrician
Ok, my wording probably asked for that.
Seriously though, this is possibly the most important shut down our department has organized in many years.
All involved are confidant the planning is complete and the team of employees and contractors are well prepared.
That said, I still have hopes some constructive tips & insights may be offered here.
Well there you have it. All there is to do now is be present and do what is asked of you.
 

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
To mitigate the worst case scenario, have a contingency plan for what to do if some of your distribution equipment (hopefully just the OCPDs, but that could be bad enough) blows up when you re-energize it. Especially any large breakers which have had "deferred maintenance" :(
If you cannot justify spares on hand, at least know where to get things in a hurry. And where to get generator power if some part of the system cannot be quickly restored.

All as part of what gadfly recommended....
 
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under8ed

Senior Member
All sound advice.
Our distribution system design is robust, dual transformer substations with ties and A/B feeders on their own transformers also with a tie, (similar system of the black out Superbowl fiasco of a couple years back, but without the automation that failed). In recent years though, growth had cost us the capacity to fully operate with any large component failure. Some of that may have been recovered in the last 2 years with more efficient production machinery.
Our start up complications usually stem from the complexity of production machinery which do not like shutting down, random failures of components seem to often occur after outages. These can cause bus feed breakers to not reset on ground faults. I believe we do have spares for some substations. We may need to use these if we must prove to production, (our customers); that problems exist within their systems.
 

steve66

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
Engineer
Try to watch out for the safety of the contractors and your equipment. It can be a double edged sword, because some might say you are less liable by letting the contractors know they are solely responsible for their own safety.

Anyhow, for the sake of not having your distribution equipment go up in smoke, I would make sure contractors are following lock-out tag out procedures, and checking to make sure power is off after flipping a switch. Its amazing how many contractors trust a breaker or disconnect to turn off 480V. How do they know the switch is working? Or how do they know that's the right switch, or there isn't a second source??

I'd also expect arc flash gear and insulated tools for any hot work. Again, this is for the safety of your equipment as well as the safety of the contractors.

We always have a planned sequence when part of a critical system is shut down. It is usually written by the contractor, and reviewed by the engineer. It has detailed steps, like shut off breaker A, lockout breaker A, test voltage to verify Breaker A is off.

We also try to consider what might go wrong, and plan. But the unexpected can and does happen.

And when the unexpected happens, that's when you need to watch out the most. That's when people panic, or start making assumptions they normally wouldn't make, or maybe they just simply forget a safety procedure, or forget they turned a breaker back on. And that's when someone is most likely to get hurt, or when your equipment is likely to be fried by a dumb move.

That's when you should be there to say "Wait, hold on a minute. Lets think about what's going on, and why we aren't following the procedure anymore."
 
That's when you should be there to say "Wait, hold on a minute. Lets think about what's going on, and why we aren't following the procedure anymore."

Definitely. Also be prepared to say "This is taking longer than expected. Do we defer not-yet-performed work and restart as planned or do we delay the restart?" 'course this requires know what work must be done, what's optional, and how they interact.
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Remember the Six P's

Remember the Six P's

No matter what you're doing, Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance.
 

under8ed

Senior Member
Since the original post, shutdown plans have been finalized and roles are defined. Approximately a 19 hour outage is scheduled:
Early Saturday morning, the E.E. will secure the plant with the assistance of two contract electricians that normally work with me, they will also coordinate and oversee the outside electrical contractors through the day. I will relieve those three and look after the facility and the work through the night so the E.E. can rest, (even better for him than coffee & doughnuts). He will return at midnight, along with two different, (fresh), contract electricians that also work with me. If all has gone well, I should be able to help restore power before I must leave at 2:00 AM, (12 hr. maximum shift). The schedule has little leeway, production maintenance needs Sunday to ensure production can be back to normal for the scheduled 3rd shift Sunday that begins the week.
It has occurred to me that this may be the only time in my career that I will be the most senior, or the only "badged" employee in the plant, (around 2500 employed). "Total" shutdowns have averaged years apart, so I may be retired before the next one. Although our E.E. may get aggressive & prove me wrong there.
Great posted advice; will be noted. The totality of the outage will provide additional safety, locks should be at one location. PPE will also be minimal, mainly just to verify power off & separated from emergency power.
The planning appears meticulous, a last meeting covered many details; contact names & numbers, fuel for generators, flashlight batteries, electrical door locks which need securing, medicines in the nurse's refrigerator, and even spoiled sandwiches in the 5 vending areas.
If all goes well, the only excitement may be oil or water spills from machines & pump backs as power is removed.
The electricians that work with me and the E.E. are aware of this thread; so don't hesitate with any other insights that may prove helpful.
 

under8ed

Senior Member
20150404_201023.jpg
Please let us know how it goes.

A cable tray pull never goes as smooth as planned.. This may be a project that delays start up. There is the option to leave only the substation down that it ties into, but the E.E. would like to bring everything online together. This will feed a bus for a line I started installing last week. There were other glitches, wrong materials arrived to rework high voltage arc barriers, complications prevented us from repacing oil in one of the transformers, and some 800 amp breakers need more work than expected and are still at the shop down the road. The start up may be a little behind schedule.
 

under8ed

Senior Member
Power house electrical distribution for chillers, cooling towers, boilers, and compressors. Also in the 1st picture is a couple replaced capacitor bank disconnects and their feeders. Any gear breakers that were not serviced over partial shutdowns in '14 holidays are completed now.

View attachment 12301 View attachment 12302 The team, some will have 20+ hours today.

Behind that wall is our S&C H.V. distribution, (23900v.). Two POCO feeders in, our A/B feeders out, (feeding 4 double ended sub stations and 1 single), and feeds to 4160v. and 480v. transformers for the power house distribution shown above. Service here is what demanded a total outage. Arc barriers & cleaning.

View attachment 12303 View attachment 12304 Both sides pictured, tie at far right, (of rt. pic.)

Behind that gear, an acre or so donated to the POCO was traded for a more direct line from the generating station. We no longer loose service if a branch falls on a line in a nearby neighborhood. A similar deal with the county Fire department was done at the front. This means a firetruck or ambulance can reach us from their back door fast!

sw yard.jpg power up.jpg Powering was beginning as I had to leave.

Hated to leave, but a new policy will not allow me more than 12 hrs. I didn't apply to the E.E. or our contractors. They still had to leave a substation down to land the new bus feeders. Hopefully they are getting out of there about now, coming up on 24 hrs. for most of them.
 

sparkyrick

Senior Member
Location
Appleton, Wi
Power house electrical distribution for chillers, cooling towers, boilers, and compressors. Also in the 1st picture is a couple replaced capacitor bank disconnects and their feeders. Any gear breakers that were not serviced over partial shutdowns in '14 holidays are completed now.

View attachment 12301 View attachment 12302 The team, some will have 20+ hours today.

Behind that wall is our S&C H.V. distribution, (23900v.). Two POCO feeders in, our A/B feeders out, (feeding 4 double ended sub stations and 1 single), and feeds to 4160v. and 480v. transformers for the power house distribution shown above. Service here is what demanded a total outage. Arc barriers & cleaning.

View attachment 12303 View attachment 12304 Both sides pictured, tie at far right, (of rt. pic.)

Behind that gear, an acre or so donated to the POCO was traded for a more direct line from the generating station. We no longer loose service if a branch falls on a line in a nearby neighborhood. A similar deal with the county Fire department was done at the front. This means a firetruck or ambulance can reach us from their back door fast!

View attachment 12305 View attachment 12306 Powering was beginning as I had to leave.

Hated to leave, but a new policy will not allow me more than 12 hrs. I didn't apply to the E.E. or our contractors. They still had to leave a substation down to land the new bus feeders. Hopefully they are getting out of there about now, coming up on 24 hrs. for most of them.

Sounds like a very busy night. Now get some sleep. BTW, the first four pics don't load.
 

under8ed

Senior Member
Missing pics

power house.jpg powerhouse team.jpg the team, (most of)


HV gear.jpg 23900 dist. close up.jpg other side & tie

Haven't had any calls or texts while I slept: assume power is all restored. I had told the E.E. that I had no special plans for today if they wanted me back.. Day is not over yet though.
 
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