Major damage due to a seagull...

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charlie said:
The size of the conductors doesn't matter as much as the class of construction. If this was "main line" primary distribution, some electric utilities will use larger conductors like 397.5 kcmil or 795 kcmil out of the substation and reduce the size after getting out a ways from the substation. With this style of construction, we start out with 795 kcmil and change to 397.5 kcmil about a mile or so away from the substation without any overcurrent protection except the substation breaker. The #4 Cu. was probably left over from a conversion to the higher voltage and may or may not be changed in the future depending on the power requirements of the area. Since there is 4.16 kV in the area, they may still be in the conversion process. :smile:
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Sorry for the late response to this Charlie...

Seems that SCE follows a similar construction practice, as the feeder line is definitely what I would call a main line feeder, it serves a lot of area and the substation is only about a half mile from here.

I agree that the #6 (I had to correct that from my OP) was most likely a leftover from an earlier conversion. I understand that 4.16kv was the de facto standard for residential for many years here in So Cal.

Odd fact: Despite SCE and DWP's long-time love affair with delta distribution here in So Cal, the 4.16 here is wye and the 16kv is delta....

But they seem to be in no hurry to upgrade the remaining 4kv class in this area...heck we were promised AMR meter upgrades three years ago..

My root question remains though: especially after this incident, which is gonna cost the POCO a small fortune in claims plus the repair bill from the contract line crew..why weren't cutouts originally installed (as our closeness to the substation would make for huge available fault currents, as this incident graphically demonstrated) and more importantly, why weren't cutouts installed as part of the repair? (Perhaps they may install them later, but I seriously doubt it.)

I also discovered from residents that that lateral has had a history of outages, the mid-span transformer failed TWICE in three days, and the jumpers had failed once before without bringing down any lines.

The POCO was incredibly lucky no one was hurt or killed, as I have pointed out in a previous post that sidewalk where the lateral and feeder are located have a lot of foot traffic in the mornings. If this had happened on a weekday there would have been some really sad news to report...
 
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LawnGuyLandSparky said:
"After" video? C'mon...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYUmdqQ94Ao
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LOL I've seen this.. and I can tell ya from the duration of the arcing sounds and the carnage it was a lot worse that this.....:D

One part of me would have loved to capture the event as it happened, but the part of me who knows how bad it was makes me very glad I wasn't anywhere near it when it happened as odds are very good I would not have been here to tell about it...
 
My work covers three different POCO areas.
Two have very limited fusing. On has done an extensive install of fuses with a slective coordination study. Amazing difference in outages and "downed" lines cause by critters, winds, etc. About a 9 to 1 ratio on outages.
 
augie47 said:
My work covers three different POCO areas.
Two have very limited fusing. On has done an extensive install of fuses with a slective coordination study. Amazing difference in outages and "downed" lines cause by critters, winds, etc. About a 9 to 1 ratio on outages.
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Which direction does that ratio favor?

Are we talking less downed lines and shorter outages, or the same amount of downed line incidents and more outages for blown fuses?

While blown fuses can be a nuisance, I would think it would be preferred to downed lines. :D
 
My poco just went through some pole replacement program. The replaced every other pole in the neighborhood, seemingly without regard to condition.
 
LawnGuyLandSparky said:
My poco just went through some pole replacement program. The replaced every other pole in the neighborhood, seemingly without regard to condition.
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Makes sense to me actually. That way they can be sure that no two or more poles in the string can fail and bring the lines down, they may have found a bunch of rotted poles in that string at one time...they may change out the others in the next year or so...

Our POCO recently had a crew going around drilling and treating our poles for butt rot. ;)
 
mxslick said:
. . . why weren't cutouts installed as part of the repair? . . I also discovered from residents that that lateral has had a history of outages . . .
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The line department doesn't engineer anything . . . ever. They are responsible for putting everything back in working order and in the same configuration as before the line went down. They will build to current standards but will not install additional switches, cutouts, etc.

mxslick said:
. . . Our POCO recently had a crew going around drilling and treating our poles for butt rot. ;)
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We use a company by the name of Osmose to do the same thing. They dig around the butt about 1?' deep, put plastic around the butt, pour a bituminous type of material for treating rot, wrap the plastic tight around the butt and backfill. If the pole is rejected, a report is issued to have the pole replaced or reinforced. :)
 
charlie said:
The line department doesn't engineer anything . . . ever. They are responsible for putting everything back in working order and in the same configuration as before the line went down. They will build to current standards but will not install additional switches, cutouts, etc.
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That makes sense to me..now who should someone talk to to get some cutouts installed to prevent a repeat performance? :)
 
charlie said:
That depends on whether or not the report makes it to the engineering department. :smile:
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With any luck, it might..since the line repair crew commented on how they'd never seem so much damage from one bird contact...

The neighbors there are still nervous and worried about a repeat performance...don't know if any of them will pressure the POCO to do anything different...most of them saw and figured out that the new wire was the same as the old.....and after the past problems with that line they are getting wary of anything the POCO says.
 
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