PoCo blew it up.

[Minuteman]

OK , I'll explain . People on this site love to hammer the POCO 's every chance they get . Only electricians and electrical contractors know anything about electricity . My point was that in my 32 yrs of power company experience , most of which involved commercial and industrial customers , I have seen some equally ignorant " electricians " . My example of the paper mill transformer trip was my little shot back at ya' . Am I being defensive ?
Damn right . :smile:

Dude, my grandfather was a lineman and an organizer for LU1925 in Martin TN. My dad was also a lineman and member before taking a job with GM. In no way was my post intending to bash lineman.

 

[charlie]

I think it is on both sides. . .

I think you have it right! There are dumb linemen (not dumb but uneducated in the proper way to do things on the load side of the service point) and there are dumb electricians (not dumb but uneducated in the proper way to do things on the line side of the service point). Everyone makes mistakes, some just dumb and of no consequence, some just dumb and someone gets killed. Then there are the dumb ones in between. Unfortunately, there are too many dumb mistakes (are there any smart mistakes?).

I personally believe there is plenty of mistakes made by both the electric utility's linemen and the electrical contractor's electricians. I hope we are able to laugh at them, walk away from them, and learn from them while sharing the experience with others so they do not make the same mistake with possibly a more serious result.

 

[LarryFine]

We work together in the end.
Without utility people, there would be no need for electricians,
and without electricians, there would be no need for utility people.​

Group hug!​

 

[iwire]

And if anyone else has pics of thier horror stories, share 'em.

Why?

 

[don_resqcapt19]

ok call me dumb but I'm so lost on this. I don't get it.

The breakers in switchgear are not really breakers as we know them...they are more of an electrically activated mechanically operated switch. The protective relays monitor the current and send a trip signal to the "breaker". The trip signal is often DC voltage from a bank of batteries. If the batteries are too low, there is not enough power to operate the "trip" unit.
Often there are battery voltage alarms to help prevent this. A number of years ago I worked on the replacement of a 5kV motor starter that "blew" up as a result of a mouse getting across the phases. There had been an addition to the plant a few years earlier that required an additional outdoor 5kV switch line-up. They had neglected to connect the remote alarm for the trip batteries and they were dead when the mouse got across the phases...the fault ended up taking out the utility primary fuses on the 10MVA transformer.

 

[mxslick]

A pic's worth a thousand words, yada yada....

A pic's worth a thousand words, yada yada....

In response to my post of:

And if anyone else has pics of thier horror stories, share 'em.

Bob wanted to know..

Why?

Perhaps I could have worded that a bit better so it didn't sound so callous or morbid....

But I have always felt that seeing the effects of incidents like these would help to drive home the importance of proper PPE and double-checking one's work. I have run into other EC's or even service techs with a very cavalier attitude toward the hazards of working with electricity..and they never want to heed verbal warnings. Thankfully those kinds of folk are the exception more than the rule.

I have always studied the effects of electrical failures of all kinds, I like to try to do a "forensic" analysis of cause and effect. I had mentioned in a post here a long time ago that I would be interested in starting a business to help determine the causes of electrical failures and devise ways to prevent them. I still wonder if such a business exists....or what the potential market would be.

Just as many of the violation pics posted here and on other sites provide insight as to what to watch out for, I think seeing the effects of electrical faults will help everyone learn how to avoid them.

 

[steelersman]

The breakers in switchgear are not really breakers as we know them...they are more of an electrically activated mechanically operated switch. The protective relays monitor the current and send a trip signal to the "breaker". The trip signal is often DC voltage from a bank of batteries. If the batteries are too low, there is not enough power to operate the "trip" unit.
Often there are battery voltage alarms to help prevent this. A number of years ago I worked on the replacement of a 5kV motor starter that "blew" up as a result of a mouse getting across the phases. There had been an addition to the plant a few years earlier that required an additional outdoor 5kV switch line-up. They had neglected to connect the remote alarm for the trip batteries and they were dead when the mouse got across the phases...the fault ended up taking out the utility primary fuses on the 10MVA transformer.

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[Rockyd]

Anytime there is a chance to be on a composite crew (lineman & wireman) I jump for it. Got a lot of respect for lineman, and their part of the project, and ask questions. They get to do lots of things we normally never consider looking at.

It's not what you know that hurts you, it's what you don't know that can kill you.