Con Edison Substation explosion NYC

[kwired]

To my surprise if you look closley at the videos none of the HID street lamps dim or extinguish on the neighboring islands or upper manhattan during the 2 flash overs which leads me to think that the fault did not occur on the 345kv bushings but somewhere after a transformer. Either that the area is fed by a large and diverse number of transmission sources. Its something wonder about.

I noticed that too. I was expecting to see more darkness after the event but noticed little or no significant change to amount lighting in the picture after the arcing was done.

 

[weressl]

Based on what I saw Im willing to guess that a part of the 115kv or 23kv (or which ever volage is used) buss or switchgear shorted out. It doesnt look like a transformer explosion because there would be smoke and fire from the oil in the vault transformer. I dont know anything about Con-eds system so I can only guess what failed and why.

I know United Illuminating had to shut down 3 substations in bridgeport ( 2 on Congress street and one in the poquonock section) at the height of the storm due to flooding concerns. CL&P had to build a concrete barrier around a Stamford substation at the south end in 90mph gusts.

If a substation gets flooded while energized the loses are much higher than when de-energized and unfortunetly Con-eds was energized.

Askarel will not burn. Con-Ed had extensively used it before it was discovered that the PCB it contains is an environmental hazard. They replaced some, but I do not think the replaced it all.

I have a suspicion that EPA will want Con-Ed to account for all the labeled PCB transformers event history during Sandy to see if any excursions occured. Many of these transformers are in undergrade substations so they were likely to flood and not all of them are sealed or kept under pressurized padding, either of which would have been the minimum measure Con-Ed should have implemented after the PCB reg's came into effect in '72(?).

 

[Haji]

a couple of substation Xfmrs blow their tops and catch fire..... The couple of failures .. there were no bright flashes..... just a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke.....

No extensive flash over, because the upstream protective devices might have operated fast enough to de-energise the circuits unlike in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzbQjd_Oo4Q

 

[Haji]

And of course the usual why didn't the OCPDs keep the sub station from blowing up?

The answer is also usual: Poor Design or poor maintenance.

 

[richxtlc]

I use to work for CE and from what I can see, this is taken from the Queens side of the river looking west. That would make it the E13st Substation. The part of the station shown would include a 345/138 kV transformer. The arcing and explosion could have been caused by the 345kV pothead that are adjacent to the walls of the substation.

 

[mbrooke]

I use to work for CE and from what I can see, this is taken from the Queens side of the river looking west. That would make it the E13st Substation. The part of the station shown would include a 345/138 kV transformer. The arcing and explosion could have been caused by the 345kV pothead that are adjacent to the walls of the substation.

You migh have an answer to this but I have been wonder how come non of the HID lights extinguish on the nieghboring islands?

In my area when a fault occurs on a 345kv line or a nearby 115kv line the voltage sag is large enough to cause for lighting to drop out and some electronic to reset themselves. Its only brief lasting about 6 to 20 cycles until the transmission breakers open, but you know when it happens.

 

[richxtlc]

The network is strong and this type of fault will cause a dip on the distribution network but it probably will not drop it below the extinguish level of the lamp.