ctclark1
Member
- Location
- Western New York
- Occupation
- Electronics Technician
I'm sure this discussion has happened before, but I didn't see any recently, so here goes. There's currently a debate happening here, with regards to what we should be labeling as Service Disconnects. We're a large multi-building facility. We get our power from the PoCo directly off a 34.5kV transmission line, then we own everything downstream, including two motorized MV gang switches, two 34.5kV stepdown transformers, and the four reclosers which feed into our medium voltage (4.8kV) distribution system. From this you can guess that we also own all of the underground and overhead cable and over 70 transformers dropping our distribution to building voltages.
The main question coming up right now is interpreting the service disconnects and the labeling of such. From 230 Parts VI and VIII, it would seem as though all of the service equipment is located in our substation alone - the sole "Service disconnects" would be the motorized gang switches upstream of the transformers.
There's also a band of thought happening that the first devices downstream of all of our distribution transformers (sometimes fused disconnects, sometimes circuit breaker enclosures, and rarely directly into a loadcenter's main breaker) should all be labeled as service disconnects as they fall into a "new service" every time the voltage is stepped down, basically pretending that we're our own power company and then treating each building like its own customer. I don't have the full list in front of me, but we're talking well over 250 of these disconnects/breakers, as most of the distribution transformers feed into at least 2 disconnects, usually more.
Does that make sense? In terms of disconnecting a given building, this could make sense for locating quickly, but would it create a violation in itself by having something labeled as a Service Disconnect if it, in fact, isn't by code?
The main question coming up right now is interpreting the service disconnects and the labeling of such. From 230 Parts VI and VIII, it would seem as though all of the service equipment is located in our substation alone - the sole "Service disconnects" would be the motorized gang switches upstream of the transformers.
There's also a band of thought happening that the first devices downstream of all of our distribution transformers (sometimes fused disconnects, sometimes circuit breaker enclosures, and rarely directly into a loadcenter's main breaker) should all be labeled as service disconnects as they fall into a "new service" every time the voltage is stepped down, basically pretending that we're our own power company and then treating each building like its own customer. I don't have the full list in front of me, but we're talking well over 250 of these disconnects/breakers, as most of the distribution transformers feed into at least 2 disconnects, usually more.
Does that make sense? In terms of disconnecting a given building, this could make sense for locating quickly, but would it create a violation in itself by having something labeled as a Service Disconnect if it, in fact, isn't by code?
