Reclosing

[jamesk]

I am a safety rep for a large utility and have a question around reclosing. Does anybody take the recloing feature off of underground cables for emp. who are performing work in eletric manholes/valuts on the cables that run through that manhole/vault? If so, which cables? All cables or just some? This has been a question around here for some time and just wondering if this has been explored.
Thanks, Jamesk

 

[ptonsparky]

I do not work on this type of equipment.

From what I see our POCOs doing for overhead work, I can not imagine them leaving anything to chance in a manhole.

 

[mayanees]

My experience with Utilities is that reclosing is disabled for underground feeders because trips are usually indicative of a problem. Alternatively, overhead feeders are subject to weather conditions that warrant an attempt to close in after a tree has worked its way loose form the lines.
John M

 

[tryinghard]

I am a safety rep for a large utility and have a question around reclosing. Does anybody take the recloing feature off of underground cables for emp. who are performing work in eletric manholes/valuts on the cables that run through that manhole/vault? If so, which cables? All cables or just some? This has been a question around here for some time and just wondering if this has been explored.
Thanks, Jamesk

I only know of these above ground and I believe they can be shut off rather than unterminated and there's usually a switch ahead of it. If it supplies underground I would think there'd be cutouts before dropping underground. Either way personal grounding would take place accordingly.

 

[Rockyd]

Check in an NESC, I believe the lines are supposed to drain down in 2 minutes (don't quote me on that).The only reclosers we could get to qualify for a seismic are 4B were Schweitzers.

 

[jghrist]

Reclosing is not normally used on underground feeders because practically all faults are permanent and reclosing would seldom be successful. If only part of the feeder is underground, reclosing might be used.

Most utilities will have a switch to disable reclosing while the line is being worked on. On modern microprocessor relays, this will be programmed into a "Hot Line Tag" pushbutton. This would disable reclosing for all conductors/cables of the feeder.