Always hated ge switchgear. About 5 years ago my company had ge junk 13,200 volt dual service switchgear installed at a new building. Ahole ge designers installed ventilation screens at eye level on gear that had a 124 CAL arch flash rating. Showed picture of it to my electrical inspector who said that he never seen anything that high. Wasntold that nobody makes arc flash clothing above 60 CAL because anovebthat level blast will kill you. Way to go ge. Had several problems with this outdoor gear.
Um, it's only about 1-2 cm breakdown voltage in air and given that suit it's likely to do anything unless there is a hole in it and he rubs up against something hot and is grounding against something(which requires some other opening. Try working with 170kV or more. 170kV can get you from, say, 10cm away. With proper safety suits it is very unlikely though that it anything would happen. Obviously it's more dangerous than being a pig but lots of more dangerous things out there(and of course stupidity is the #1 killer in any job that has danger).
@@jsmdnq "Um, it's only about 1-2 cm breakdown voltage in air " You don't know what arcflash is? "ut lots of more dangerous things out there" Do you spend all day pointing out to people that whatever they are doing is not remotely as dangerous as something else? Nobody cares...
You have to respect these guys. The jobs that they do if they make one mistake they’re dead. How many jobs do you know that you cannot make a mistake that you have to be basically perfect. This is one of the only electricians definitely get my respect.
Had a boss tell me that a 34.5kva MOD (mechanically operated discount) feeder that feed a EAF (electric arc furnace) was open (off) even after the hot stick was beebing off. He said it was static electricity and was going to prove me wrong by testing it with 600 volt DVM, needless to say he was wrong. The arc flash and the noise were undiscribable. My boss and three other electricians that followed him in vault almost lost their lives. I refused to follow him in and walked away unhurt.
Apathy, it's a killer. Even if you were wrong this time, it's only a matter of time before you're right. If I'm wrong, nothing happens. If you're wrong, I am now the proud owner of a face that scares children! Not me baby! It's never gonna be me! It's amazing how footloose and fancy free some people are with YOUR safety!
"He said it was static electricity" Must have been charged with a gigantic comb and huge kitty. Never tried a hot stick on a charged capacitor bank. If my stick goes off, it's hot.
Never be afraid to be known as the dickhead. You have the power to stop it even if they outranked you, make a fuss, throw a fit, tell them you will report them. Whatever it takes, I have stopped at least 1 for sure death by being "the little bitch" or "snitch" but that guy is alive and unharmed. He also calmed way the fuck down when he realized had he continued he would be dead. Of course no thank you to me, but the fit I threw made that understandable.
@@terrydavis8451 Amen! Even when doing something that others may view as being "routine" or "not dangerous" I've stood my ground and told people no if there is potential there is the possibility of injury. I have no idea how much anyone else's body can take. I have no idea if you have heart trouble, or a pacemaker. Who am I to tell you what you can expect, when I don't have any idea what your body can or can not handle. I'll make that decision for myself.
Reminds me of throwing 32KV cutouts with nothing but a pair of rubber coated leather gloves and a fiberglass hotstick while hanging on a wooden utility pole 40 feet in the air , nothing holding you up but a pair of gaffs and a pole belt. Damned glad things have progressed past that type of work and damned glad I'm retired.
For 11KV we need to be wearing 33kV of insulation, not including the bucket cover if we are in the air. Our quick-breaks are also tested to 22kV. You look like this every time - it's hot - but it's better than dead.
I was working on 33kV SF6 switchgear in Thailand when the Thai site manager took a flash photograph over my shoulder. Sorry to say I swiveled round and belted him out of shock!
When I started my apprenticeship in 1970 we were taken to a safety exhibition in London. One of the exhibits was part of a bus bar taken from a sub station many years before. A guy was working in the substation at a time when it was commonplace not to have covers on equipment in such places as the doors were kept locked and the assumption was if you were in there you should know what you are doing. The bus bar had an arc about 8" diameter burnt into it from when the man lent back and made contact with it vaporising the copper bus bar along with his head. You don't get a second chance with HV stuff.
@@towkukus If you are not native to English. A substation is the area where Voltage gets transformed and distributed to buildings and districts. A bus bar is basically a wire. It connects several input and output devices and can handle usually a lot of power compared to the wires ot connects to. Its to make connections and cable routings easy.
I've thrown so many crank charging high voltage breakers without ppe. I had a short one night shut down the mill I was working at. We replaced all the belts and couplings on refiners, pumps and screens. An electrician went down to flip the breaker luckily it was a new type with a remote switch and an motor that charged it. He flipped the switch and it blew the door completely off the switchgear then started a massive fire. I'll never forget the sounds of thousands of volts of electricity arcing coupled with the smell of burning electronics and flames lighting up the night sky.
So this is how they provide inverse reactive current for using unilateral phase detractors due to the modial interaction of magneto reluctance and capacitive diractance due to its surrounded by the malleable logarithmic casing holding the spurving bearings in direct contact with the panometric FAM Or some shit🔥😂
I left school in 1960 and started as an apprentice in the electrical utility business. I've seen the aftermath of arc flash on people and equipment. I moved on to other employment on the 1980s. It's good to see that the ever present danger of arc flash is now being taken seriously.
I would have to say this is the best 11kv vcb tamco switching video I have ever seen. Filled full of suspense! Is he going to get zapped???? Is he going to get vaporized??? Will there be a big bang and everything go dark??? Wow this one was fantastic! Kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time! Thanks TH-cam!
Not certain how I got to watch this since I'm not an electrician. Good job doing what you do that I can never do if I knew what exactly was being done.
Wait, you're not a member of the secret electricians guild? You must delete the link to this video and never speak of what you have seen! This is your only warning, never pry into the secrets of the guild!!
As someone that does this regularly, I can say that it's just like when you click the light switch to turn off your lights. Except our switches are a bit bigger, and turn off a few more lights 🤗
@@rixogtr No visible warning signs in the room, seemingly no lockout/tagout procedure (given that an unprotected dude just walks right in), guy doesn't even have a flashlight, doesn't test the metal enclosure for voltage, etc..
great idea, when i see someone in really serious PPE, my first thought is always "I should stand inappropriately close to the work in just a regular t-shirt"
correct, stand to the side of the switch in case it blows the door off. If youve ever been by one that blew, it will make your knees buckle and you cant run. You can talk about it later when your hearing recovers. We were just talking about sabotaged switchgear and working in a school, slowly took off a side panel and sure enough was a two foot emt pipe in the top of the bus ready to roll down into it. Be careful working this stuff hot. The switches need to be long handled so you can push them with a stick from the side, we call it a chicken stick. Better to be a live chicken than a dead turkey.
Awesome to see. In the early 90s i worked at a Siemens factory and we buildt these cabinets, hundreds of them, they are used for power supply of metro trains here. I build a few of these myself. Sorry for wrong words in english, i am german.
We use to send the new guy at work to pull the lever on the big switch the first day on job. We had fireworks go off behind it. Always made for a good laugh. The switch was in own room no longer in use unpowered.
The fire control radar on my ship had a capacitor bank that charged to 85kv. And we discharged it with a 24” long plastic pole that had a hook and cable on the end. When maintenance required it be discharged, there were two of us in dungarees; one held the discharge tool, the other stood 3 feet away with his trouser belt in his hands to pull the other off in case things went awry. No giant safety suit, 8 times the voltage, huge capacitance values. Keep in mind this capacitor bank fed a 1 Megawatt radar system.
A) Don't confuse "the voltage is higher" with "it's much more dangerous". Your radar was 1Mwatt, the powerplants that supply these switches are in the gigawatt range so an explosion of one of these switches is much more violent than what the power of that ship could provide. B) Discharging a large or high-voltage capacitor by shorting it out is a _very_ bad idea, usualy resulting in the tool getting vaporized, or at least permanently welded to the terminals. My guess is that you where tasked with shorting it out _after_ it had naturally discharged through the equipment, to prevent it from building up a new charge as people are working on it. C) There may have been a reason why you had no protection: it wasn't that dangerous.
@@vinny142 you are correct. Upon further reflection, the unit was discharged prior to opening the cabinet. The hook was used to ground it rather than discharge it. The purpose being to keep it in a safe state. Thanks for the reminder, it has been over 40 years since I worked on that radar. No one was ever hurt by the big capacitor bank, yet it scared us the most.
In the late 80's I worked on 11.8 or 12.5 Kv. here in Oregon. There was a lot of expansion going on in the plant and when they blew an arm sized fuse, I had to replace them, or we had to wait for the Electric Company. Not wanting the downtime, they asked me. I never did get used to that work.
We always thank our firemen, EMT's and first responders, but do we ever consider the brave one's who keep the lights on? Sure, they get paid for their job, but you would never see me on a high voltage powerline, I don't care how much you pay me. So my hat goes off to all the electrical workers of the world.
Or that we work Xmas or our families birthdays, work shift work and out on a 250’ boiler in 110° heat or this winter when it was -15°. We get pd well, but we suffer also. Thank you for your comment
Working in that suit in August, in South Texas, is so much fun... But if you ever witness an arc flash incident, you will gladly sweat your balls off for the protection it provides...
What about the electric train crews who have to short out the live electrified rails in an emergency? They don't get to wear such a suit, but just their uniforms! And those rails carry thousands of amps and it's DC so it's not self extinguishing. And I've seen that job being done only yards away at a station once. And the arcs on the rails from the collector shoes are often huge and light up all the surrounding area at night, I've seen it loads of times and even once used the arc to light up a photo at night. How about that?
@@huntsbychainsaw5986 When there's any kind of emergency on a railway with live electrified rails the train crews have to get shorting bars out from the train and then use them to short out the live rails to trip out the breakers at the substations which feed the track so they can safely carry out whatever needs to be done, which might involve evacuating passengers and the only protection they have is insulating gloves. And I saw it being done once in the daytime. It's far more dangerous at night or inside a tunnel, especially in the freezing winter when it's icy and slippery. And the emergency could be a derailment or just a train broken down, or an obstruction on the track, or worse still a child on the live track getting burned. And I nearly had heart failure once at a station with live tracks where a little toddler was sat on the platform edge and I thought he was going to jump down onto the track, needless to say I intervened and got him safely away from it double quick! That was more than 30 years ago and it still haunts me.
@@majorpygge-phartt2643. Oh ok well... that sounds like a terrible plan... and that's plan A... apparently... Sub stations around here trip 3 times before they go into fail safe so I can imagine how terrible that would be if they use that practice here.
@@majorpygge-phartt2643 afaik the shorting bars are only used for secondary protection, once power has already been cut, just to make sure noone switches back on while still in emergency or maintenance
And here I jump EVERY TIME when I connect up a new battery pack to a tiny 2U racked 2.2kVA UPS and it sparks while making a loud twack sound. Watching this video shortened my life. ;)
@@chrisdenison3273 In a room with a big freaking switch that turns off an entire factory worth of power, please explain why you wouldn't want some battery powered emergency lightning so you can see what you're doing if the switch ever has to be turned off.
We took the class on arc safety. During the class I was thinking "hell no, never gonna do that". The next week the 480vac feed to the unit failed, and we had to service it. Never say never.
I have a IBEW lineman buddy that did this for a living, he now works fulltime maintenance for UPS making 50% more a year, and he does not have to work about dying everyday......
I like the fact that switch gear is simple to operate. After VCB was switched off/open, the racking out was made easily and withdrawal was simple. After the cable was proved dead, the earthing mechanism was then closed in the earthing position. Great design, no earth trunk required.
Banyakkan video switching lagi bro , smpai org luar negara pun tngk . Mmg mantap ! I once work at Tamco Switchgear Factory Malaysia HQ ( Shah Alam) my 2nd intern for my Chargeman A1, ive been testing these boards like this everyday for 6+months ,from mechanical ,physical , wiring, ct, vt , relay and etc. They also train me to do the exact routine as the video to test every single panel. Currently studying for Chargeman A4 and hoping to get into B0 11kv / 33kv and above . Keep it up guys ! 💪
I used to do power routines in the phone co. Even 24v plant is very dangerous as the lead acid batteries can put out huge amounts of current. We had a huge fire in one of our offices probably due to someone shorting out a string of batteries.
24v? What country? US is -48v. Tool shorting across should never create a fire. Even across a main buss the first thing that happens is the tool vaporizes. If that doesn't blow it right off there are shunts on every battery string. Equipment is usually the fire hazard. Draw enough current to start a fire, but not enough to trip breakers, and well below what it would take to activate a battery string shunt.
Remember getting a bunch of those batteries from a decomissioned cell site and building a 12V solar system with them. Yeah lots of current indeed. They were very similar to fork truck cells except bigger and real contact lugs with copper cores and brass bolts. 🤓.
Best & safest practice for switching all medium voltage gear is to have a remote operator about 25' from breaker. That way you do not have to suit up and a lot safer if an arc flash occurs. We always had to wear a 11 cal long sleeve shirt under 40 & 50 Cal suite.Have to suit up when racking a breaker in or out. Should no must have a second qualified worker suited up standing at least 10' to side in case of an arc flash to save primary worker.
@@2loco people/ clowns should not post vids on some thing that is not up to latest safety pratices. Little thing like OSHA will sue the hell out of any company who a person is killed or serious hurt. They came into my old company to investigate so many people getting carpal tunnel then ended up with a supena to remove all meducal records. Wrote up a lot of safety & electrical violations while there. Safety manager got fired and sparkies got lots if overtime fuxing violations.NEC states that electrical work must be performed by qualified people. If you halve ass your PPE safety gear you are an unqualified idiot.
This looked like servicing the switchgear, removing that large module and a small part placed near the camera after removal. Of cause there's a lot less elbow room servicing an 11kV substation out in the field, where the backup worker is in the service van 25' away.
As an IT person I have been with electricians when they switched transformers. In my experiences with 17kv you don't realize how much voltage that is until you see the look in the electrician's eyes as he approaches the transformer. So...in comparison to the electricians I have worked with why did this guy, a) work with metal tools, b) allow non-essential "spectators" within close proximity to the work, and c) is that orange suit non-conductive or what's its purpose? I know when you're dealing with this kind of voltage the arc boundary is surprisingly large and deserves your respect.
I'm thinking that wasn't a live setup - it looked like a training room to me. Certainly, the proving dead afterwards was a bit casual..That's not to say that high power 11KV can't be exciting - it will come out and get you and if it does you aren't walking away - hence the protective gear. But that gear looked awfully new and clean.. And the way the chap leaned into the cab once the switchgear had been pulled.. not me sir. Reach in with that proving pole first.. and I mean REACH.. Not that I have switched a lot of 11kv, but ..
suit isnt voltage proof; its just flame resistant to some degree. In case of arc flash, your typical plastic clothes would immediately melt in to your skin
As an electrician myself . Where I work , our protective clothing is just arc / flame retardant rated for the arc displacement rating of the equipment. We also wear an arc helmet and face shield with a arc/flame retardant balaclava with lineman rubber gloves for some situations we find ourselves working in at times. Very high voltage clothing or arc suits I would say have their metal zippers or buttons either incapsulated or covered under a flap.
We used to switch 33KV on skid breakers used by Richards Bay Minerals in South Africa. No PPE like this and often in very remote locations where water etc was around. Very scary.
When I was a kid, I found an old neon sigh transformer. That thing generated 17,000 volts to ground. It could produce a two inch arc that was a half inch wide and it could cook through glass. Being the young Tesla protege that I imagined myself and with my rudimentary understanding of electricity, I procured a large wooden box to stand on and I could hold my finger two inches from the posative terminal and receive a nice little blue electrical arc without the fire. They sort of tickled. My buddy, who knew nothing about electricity, wanted to feel the tickle. I advised him to stand on the box and to heel his head low as we were in the basement and there were two large water pipes overhead and I was sure they were wello grounded. He got on the box, moved his finger around the terminal and he seemed delighted with the result, however, in his exuberence, he forgot the pipe. I was watching the little blue tenticle on his finger and it turned to a band of yellow fire, the smell of burning hair, a yelp and he was out of there in a flash. I kind of think that if this guy just had a wooden box, he might not need that orange suit.
@@cyberprog Thank you for that but I was talking about the difference between touching a terminal ungrounded and touching the same terminal grounded. No one was killed in this experiment.
@@pforce9 yes, but that's the point. This guy is working with the same levels of voltage as your neon transformer. But your neon transformer, increasing the voltage from I guess 110v AC would probably only be making a couple of hundred mA at 17kV. The transformer in this application is probably stepping down 11kV to 110v or something like that if I had to guess. But at hundreds of amps.
@@cyberprog That guy in the video was not working on anything remotely like my transformer, either in voltage or amperage. He had to get into a suit just to approach it. Basically, my original comment explained a situation much like a bird on a high tension wire. As long as he is not grounded, he can sit on that wire all day but if he contacts that wire and ground, he is toast. Amperage was not discussed because it was not relevant to my point.
Well, I don't know if everything was done to best practice as I'm not an electric plant worker (a thing or two looked questionable in the vid but will defer to someone who knows), BUT it makes me glad to know that what I deal with is fairly low end. Still lethal, but comparatively more tame. Thanks for posting.
I build now for 20 Years Substaions and Switchstations like this.I like the Switchgears wehre you can put out the Switch and go inside. But i never go inside a System like this without using a Probestick to get shure there is no Charge.My Probestick and my PSA are my Lifeinsurance.
I tested medium voltage gear. My tick tracer came out first. I also would check the blades on the station, sometimes they bust off. Sometimes the ware would go "bang"!
Remind me of a time i had to install two sprinkler lines in an energized room. I don't know what the fancy, loud units were that seemed to be encased in Faraday cages are called, but they channeled electricity through a 31 floor office building. I did my best to be cautious, had a friendly firefighter who stationed himself out side the room(he was on fire watch duty because of the sprinklers being shutdown) For my own peace of mind, i had a threaded union out side of the room for each line. I did not complete the unions until all of my work inside the room was completed. Yeah, rooms like that tend to be intimidating.
If you have to put that much equipment on to turn something on or off I don't want any part of it. I don't even want to be in the same room as that equipment!
That's the correct behavior for anyone not trained to work on such equipment, and with the correct protection gear for such task. Now, if only those two other randoms there were thinking like you...
I’m in agreement 100%!!!!!! You couldn’t pay me a million bucks to touch that damn thing!!!!! I have had one accident with electricity on the past.....that incident caused a phobia you wouldn’t believe!!!!! In my opinion if someone has no fear of this job your showing he shouldn’t be doing this job!!!! I would be petrified!!!!!!
It's not too bad if the MCC room is air-conditioned. And they are insurance incase something isn't right... I would rather sweat my balls off than have to go through years of skin graphs or possible death.
As per my experience, there should have been a pre-process of grounding the dead side before removing the VCB… this is a very safe procedure that must be followed… we never know about how much power was stored in the system… the risk of big arcing formation is always possible
Mis felicitaciones ¡¡¡¡ Muy buen uso del protocolo de seguridad usando correcta y adecuadamente el equipo de seguridad personal así como el comportamiento de otros miembros del equipo que en estos casos no debe estar sola la persona realizando actividades de riesgo
Nice suit, I never had one of them but then we were forbidden from local switching of breakers but he should have unplugged the umbilical before pulling the breaker out.
I can’t even begin to say how many things are wrong in this video! This is a good training video on what not to do! It’s clear no one has any training or understanding of the dangers they are facing. Wow!!
@@pauldiesel4582 And others just make vague unsubstantiated claims as if they know something. They pretend like they're helping others, but they don't actually say anything that's useful.
@@stargazer7644 before you judge others, know what you are talking about! Apparently you have had no training in in NFPA 70E, otherwise you would know how bad this video is.
Plastic or other materials that are less conductive would probably not survive the high forces exerted on them. In some cases the tools are simply metal because they are not in close proximity of live parts. I know that there can also be cabinets that have tools inside of them, resting in positions in which they can't be taken out unless the proper procedure for powering down the particular part is followed, releasing some of the tools that allow you to finish the other steps in order. Some electric locomotives and trains have this as well, the key for raising the pantograph or enabling main power fits the door to the engine room, but can't be taken out in the active position, for instance. It prevents the operator from entering a room that might have lethal voltages present on some parts otherwise.
Don't know if you guys noticed but on the right side of the cable trench there's a PVC pipe and a small electrical cable for a drain pump. It looks this room may flood from time to time, maybe that's the reason they elevated the switchgear cabinet. you can also see a sewer pipe in the ceiling. This substation would never be approved in my country...
@Oleg Ivanov How about building it properly? Raised the switchgear but created a trip hazard at the same time. Most likely to trip up the person in the bomb disposal suit.
Take note of the rust at the bottom of that switch enclosure. And why are those other guys standing there with no eye protection? I once was working on a 480volt three phase ATS. My meter pouch was on the top of the enclosure. As I pulled the meter leads out a small 18 gauge jumper fell out and landed inside the cabinet across two legs of the buss. The flash explosion blinded me and created a brief arc. I ran blind to the rear of the building hitting the wall. I took out the utility pole cut outs and a block of homes. Lesson learned. Wear safety gear always. Don’t leave anything on top of switch gear cabinets.
I was 11kv approved at 3 places where I worked. Racking breakers in and closing them on both island mode and into the UK grid. Made my balls tingle every time!!!!
Haha... the guy spends ages suiting up into the arc flash protection, starts his mega kilovolt task.... then two blokes rock up with t-shirts and surgical masks on... quality!
Prime example of how not to design and operate a substation. 1) Where is the emergency lighting?? Not even going to bother with finding the code reference for it, that's basic safety right there. Worst case scenario ensure that you have a flashlight on hand when performing service. 2) Bystander needs to get the hell out of the room when service is being done to the equipment. Someone is just asking to be injured in the event of an arc-flash by not wearing PPE. 3) Ramp is a trip-hazard. Something tells me whoever designed this substation was not an engineer/wasn't an experienced engineer at best. Someone will trip and potentially grab the inside of the switchgear chasis for support, potentially putting themselves in a very dangerous situation. I use the word "will" because its a possibility. Eliminating the ramp will make that "will" into a "will not" scenario. 4) Transformer and switchgear should never be in the same room, no questions asked. Horrible idea and you don't even have to be an engineer to understand the problem. Transformers use oil to keep themselves cool and dissipate any heat that is created from the currents passing through the windings. In the event of an arc-flash scenario, a tonne of energy is released at once and the potential to start a fire is very likely. Oil is EXTREMELY flammable (not all, but most oils used for transformer cooling are). Putting a highly flammable substance next to a potentially large source of ignition is simply wrong. This scenario is only a ticking time bomb that the fire-department has yet to dis-arm. 5) Ventilation is missing. For the sake of keeping equipment cool, and fire safety, some means of ventilation is required. Doesn't need to run all the time, just be on standby in the event that a large cloud of smoke needs to be cleared out of the building.
I was on a cruise ship, in the main motor propulsion room during a 2 week refit in a Singapore dock. Suddenly, there was a loud bang and total black out before the emergency generators kicked in. We found out latter that a work had been asked to clean the main switch gear room. Without instructions, he opened a door that had 11,000 volts behind it and got zapped. He lived to tell the tail, 12 months latter, an Engineeer on the ship told us that he was still in hospital. he was lucky to be alive. Now, why did he opened the door, I sure that he was just asked to sweep the floor, was he also informed not to touch anything in the room and where was the sentry?
Given how there was a maintenance overhaul, someone might also have left the cabinet open, and he was just mopping around or anything without paying attention to his surroundings. It's sort of the same how people without technical knowledge on low-voltage circuits (like computers and the like) tend to flinch when you poke around in it with a meter trying to look for a fault that was reported and say "Don't you need to be worried about getting shocked!?" and you need to explain that it's unlikely to get a shock from those parts, and that it's the power supply that's the dangerous part inside a computer. If people don't know what 11kV switch gear looks like, somehow the daunting appearance of said parts might miss them completely and they might think: "Hey, that copper looks like it has some spots on it" *reaches with their cloth in an attempt to rub it off*. To me, even without having the proper education in high voltage switch gear, most of it to me has the same kind of appearance and terrifying nature that some insects have: "Don't bother me or I'll sting or bite!"
I serviced and built vacuum tube guitar amps for years. The one procedure for survival is the "thumb in the belt loop" trick. If you make a mistake your work hand gets a jolt, instead of the current going across your chest, killing you.
I've been a commercial Electrician for almost 30 years now and the thunderous noise... that bang, when it was tripped, brought back some strong emotions and memories. The ex-wife's knees used to make a similar sound whenever I asked for sex.... sorry for getting emotional guy's but on the plus she IS my ex.
That is the problem with the old switchgear .. but with arc flash contaminetion classed switchgear you will not require to use such as protection PPE for switching .. but it will be required only for double check the absence of voltage before performing maintanance activites . Reff: NFPA70E
Its needed to pull out breaker. For switching only, its not. atleast in my country :D Anyway, had a case in power plant, man was pushing in 6kV breaker into socket, and breaker had short circuit to case. The explosion just threw the man and the breaker far from the cabinet. He wasn't using the suit, but breaker body shielded the arc so nothing fatal happened luckily.
Never once have I had to suit up before opening or closing 11Kv circuit breakers, either oil or Vacuum interrupters. We had to take extra safety precautions before and after pulling the trucks out to change the oil on the surface in the winch room. Underground we used vacuum interrupters in the FLP face transformer, and outbye at the main subs they'd be OCB's.
@@mckenziekeith7434 I was a Manager... I had access to every room in terminals B, C and D at LGA. I walked across jet ways and under planes, thru the belt return systems. Best job I ever had tbH.
@@OG_DSM wow! that does actually sound pretty interesting! Certainly a lot of places to eat lunch where nobody would bother you. Anyway, glad you never got fried.
@@mckenziekeith7434 while you had access, just because the units look similar does not mean they carried the same sort of voltage. This is very common design for electrical enclosures.
That ppe arc suit looks more like a raincoat. We wore 40 calorie jump suits and helmets. We were advised that the headgear would be vaporized or blown off our heads if an arc fault occurred. No one else was allowed into the substation room until the job was complete and the panel door secured.
And me too, whenever we carry out such activities we wear >Hood, multi layer IFRC,cloves and 100% untreated natural fabric under garment, safety boots and our PPE are blue.
Could easily have ended is one of those safety videos where experts are explaining what went wrong.. Especially when some random dude came without protective gear and started pointing at things
@Resampling the objections listed are the result of decades of civilisation, rights, social and industrial evolution ,...in Asia there is no similar culture. An equipment built according to our western standards would cost a lot:more...if the equipment burns they will replace it in no time and little expenses ....these workers are easily replaceable and if they burn or die they can compensate them or relatives with some money
@@matthewmaxwell-burton4549 Remote control is worthless for physical service of the kind shown. This switchgear is probably the remote controlled unit that protects the transformer, platform prevents transformer coolant from getting inside with someone calculating how high it would flood the floor with the cable trench sealed, then multiplied by a safety factor.
It's probably more of a color meant to be easier visible in case of a blackout after a fault, along with possibly having different colors for different functions of workers. In case of damaged clothing, it might also help to spot holes or tears easier, given that such a bright orange color is usually not something people will wear as regular clothing below their safety suit. In The Netherlands, if you happen to know someone who works on the grid, you can get taken along on a visit to a substation where work is done. You get a particular color helmet and safety vest, to clearly indicate "I'm a visitor" so if someone who works there sees you somewhere without the person escorting you, or sees you with your hands out of your pocket in an area were people visiting are requested to keep them in their pockets, they know you might be unaware of the dangers and can immediately request you to leave or at least follow up the procedures.
To work on 480v three phase 1000A equipment for the U.S. Postal Service I had to wear a jump suit of the proper calorie rating, cotton clothes and leather shoes, three pairs of gloves - cotton, rubber (changed every 6 months), and thick leather gloves. Also, a pair of goggles, earplugs, and a hardhat with face shield. Before putting on the rubber gloves we had to roll them up to show no pinhole leaks of air existed. A pinhole could get you killed. After turning off the power to the equipment we had to prove the equipment at each phase and cross phases with a VOM rated CAT III for AC, and then for DC (high capacity caps). THEN we could work on the equipment. Oh, the equipment power was turned off in TWO places - at the machine breaker 1, and then up at the box breaker. Then lockouts of course.
@@davidsault9698 fair enough, but for 1000Amp connection I think cat III is on the edge tbh. We use always cat 4 on such high short-circuit power test points; and cat 3 at small distribution panels with supply like 400V and
Oh hell no!! As an electrical engineer engineer I have seen the results of high energy arc faults…I give these guys lots of respect!!!
Tqvm Sir
Always hated ge switchgear. About 5 years ago my company had ge junk 13,200 volt dual service switchgear installed at a new building. Ahole ge designers installed ventilation screens at eye level on gear that had a 124 CAL arch flash rating. Showed picture of it to my electrical inspector who said that he never seen anything that high. Wasntold that nobody makes arc flash clothing above 60 CAL because anovebthat level blast will kill you. Way to go ge. Had several problems with this outdoor gear.
I bet so does the bank where he keeps his money.
Um, it's only about 1-2 cm breakdown voltage in air and given that suit it's likely to do anything unless there is a hole in it and he rubs up against something hot and is grounding against something(which requires some other opening.
Try working with 170kV or more. 170kV can get you from, say, 10cm away. With proper safety suits it is very unlikely though that it anything would happen. Obviously it's more dangerous than being a pig but lots of more dangerous things out there(and of course stupidity is the #1 killer in any job that has danger).
@@jsmdnq "Um, it's only about 1-2 cm breakdown voltage in air "
You don't know what arcflash is?
"ut lots of more dangerous things out there"
Do you spend all day pointing out to people that whatever they are doing is not remotely as dangerous as something else? Nobody cares...
Meanwhile, PhotonicInduction puts 350kV through a telly whilst pissed and discharges 200kA in his garden for fun.
Haha! Just saw his latest vid! Mad stuff!
yes, but his rigs won't deliver both of those at once...
@@railgap yet…
Glad he’s back
Photon is a genius
You have to respect these guys. The jobs that they do if they make one mistake they’re dead. How many jobs do you know that you cannot make a mistake that you have to be basically perfect. This is one of the only electricians definitely get my respect.
No mistake at all..once you get...wellcome to hospital and straight to grave..
I worked on 30 kv tho not massive current neer used that kit
Had a boss tell me that a 34.5kva MOD (mechanically operated discount) feeder that feed a EAF (electric arc furnace) was open (off) even after the hot stick was beebing off. He said it was static electricity and was going to prove me wrong by testing it with 600 volt DVM, needless to say he was wrong. The arc flash and the noise were undiscribable. My boss and three other electricians that followed him in vault almost lost their lives. I refused to follow him in and walked away unhurt.
Apathy, it's a killer. Even if you were wrong this time, it's only a matter of time before you're right. If I'm wrong, nothing happens. If you're wrong, I am now the proud owner of a face that scares children! Not me baby! It's never gonna be me! It's amazing how footloose and fancy free some people are with YOUR safety!
"He said it was static electricity"
Must have been charged with a gigantic comb and huge kitty. Never tried a hot stick on a charged capacitor bank.
If my stick goes off, it's hot.
Was it a vacuum circuit breaker? Was it racked out?
We always teach to use a meter that is rated to the voltage you're testing.
Never be afraid to be known as the dickhead. You have the power to stop it even if they outranked you, make a fuss, throw a fit, tell them you will report them. Whatever it takes, I have stopped at least 1 for sure death by being "the little bitch" or "snitch" but that guy is alive and unharmed. He also calmed way the fuck down when he realized had he continued he would be dead. Of course no thank you to me, but the fit I threw made that understandable.
@@terrydavis8451 Amen! Even when doing something that others may view as being "routine" or "not dangerous" I've stood my ground and told people no if there is potential there is the possibility of injury. I have no idea how much anyone else's body can take. I have no idea if you have heart trouble, or a pacemaker. Who am I to tell you what you can expect, when I don't have any idea what your body can or can not handle. I'll make that decision for myself.
Reminds me of throwing 32KV cutouts with nothing but a pair of rubber coated leather gloves and a fiberglass hotstick while hanging on a wooden utility pole 40 feet in the air , nothing holding you up but a pair of gaffs and a pole belt.
Damned glad things have progressed past that type of work and damned glad I'm retired.
For 11KV we need to be wearing 33kV of insulation, not including the bucket cover if we are in the air. Our quick-breaks are also tested to 22kV. You look like this every time - it's hot - but it's better than dead.
Glad you could retire :-)
Damn glad you could retire....respect!
@@XBKLYN Thanks, I don't miss risking my life every moment of every day.
@@janlukes5833 Thanks, I'm glad I survived.
I don't miss risking my life every day.
I was working on 33kV SF6 switchgear in Thailand when the Thai site manager took a flash photograph over my shoulder. Sorry to say I swiveled round and belted him out of shock!
Don’t you just hate it when that happens. I love it when the plant alarms sound just as I am approaching some kind of electrical task in a panel.
I’ve somehow managed to confuse the hell out of the TH-cam algorithm.
same ... I just didn't comprehent what I've seen there .... tbh
im with both of ya
Welcome aboard. Let’s see where this train goes next.
Perhaps, perhaps. 👾
Same
When I started my apprenticeship in 1970 we were taken to a safety exhibition in London. One of the exhibits was part of a bus bar taken from a sub station many years before. A guy was working in the substation at a time when it was commonplace not to have covers on equipment in such places as the doors were kept locked and the assumption was if you were in there you should know what you are doing. The bus bar had an arc about 8" diameter burnt into it from when the man lent back and made contact with it vaporising the copper bus bar along with his head. You don't get a second chance with HV stuff.
Was the guy injured?
@@bertiewooster3326 "vaporising the copper bus bar along with his head. You don't get a second chance with HV stuff." Yes.
bus bar located in the substation - is that an underground metro station where they sell drinks? and the bar looks like the red london bus?
@@bertiewooster3326 Does killed count as "injured"? Then yes, he was injured.
@@towkukus If you are not native to English. A substation is the area where Voltage gets transformed and distributed to buildings and districts. A bus bar is basically a wire. It connects several input and output devices and can handle usually a lot of power compared to the wires ot connects to. Its to make connections and cable routings easy.
I've thrown so many crank charging high voltage breakers without ppe. I had a short one night shut down the mill I was working at. We replaced all the belts and couplings on refiners, pumps and screens. An electrician went down to flip the breaker luckily it was a new type with a remote switch and an motor that charged it. He flipped the switch and it blew the door completely off the switchgear then started a massive fire. I'll never forget the sounds of thousands of volts of electricity arcing coupled with the smell of burning electronics and flames lighting up the night sky.
Reason to not reset motor ovrtloads in run condition. Shorted motor equal infinite current
I've watched these dudes. This is serious stuff and the precautions they take are more than justified. Hats off to 'em......
This is why men are paid more. Oil rigs, fighter pilots.. all men
@@ainsmas361 Fragile ego huh
@@lilbacon7777 it’s basic logic. This is why the ‘gender pay gap’ is a feminist lie.
Low IQ argument
The switching suit is quite expensive as it can save ur life😅
its a job where you can only make a mistake once in your whole life
I've never seen anyone turn on a retro-incabulator. Very impressive.
Something something prefamulated amulite.
And automatically synchronizing cardinal grammeters.
@@TKing2724 Exactly and within the 1 mili Groentkin certainty threshold....impressive!
Ya always have to make sure it's not comin outta the goesinta
So this is how they provide inverse reactive current for using unilateral phase detractors due to the modial interaction of magneto reluctance and capacitive diractance due to its surrounded by the malleable logarithmic casing holding the spurving bearings in direct contact with the panometric FAM
Or some shit🔥😂
I left school in 1960 and started as an apprentice in the electrical utility business. I've seen the aftermath of arc flash on people and equipment. I moved on to other employment on the 1980s. It's good to see that the ever present danger of arc flash is now being taken seriously.
I would have to say this is the best 11kv vcb tamco switching video I have ever seen. Filled full of suspense! Is he going to get zapped???? Is he going to get vaporized??? Will there be a big bang and everything go dark??? Wow this one was fantastic! Kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time! Thanks TH-cam!
Same here, had to pause several times...
I've seen many 11kv vcb tamco switching videos, but this is by far the best.
But the switching system is not full redundant .. better the lighting is supplied by emergency bus so it wouldnt light out when switching
Novice here but what does that box do?
This is the only safe way to plug in apples lightning charger.
It's called lightning for a reason
Funny!
Yeh but they still can't design a connector that separates a 52v power line to the screen away from a 1v data line to the CPU.. fūcking idiots.
@@EdgyNumber1 So true that engineer should be fired.
😂😂😂
Not certain how I got to watch this since I'm not an electrician. Good job doing what you do that I can never do if I knew what exactly was being done.
It just shows what goes into throwing a simple switch. He has to wear all that PPE so he doesn't vaporize his arm if things don't go well.
Wait, you're not a member of the secret electricians guild? You must delete the link to this video and never speak of what you have seen! This is your only warning, never pry into the secrets of the guild!!
@@adrianpilbrow that’s hilarious!
As someone that does this regularly, I can say that it's just like when you click the light switch to turn off your lights. Except our switches are a bit bigger, and turn off a few more lights 🤗
@@mattreid5475 .. and they'll kill you if you don't treat them with the respect they deserve..
I thought he was going to open a gate to another dimension. Could have been a scene from Stranger Things.
🤣
LOL
Those onlookers are Well within the Arcflash boundry.
Yea apparently explodong molten copper isnt one of their concerns.
@@bradfader691 they will be just fine , they have their masks on
@@bonusnudges the one fella. If its high enough he needs a 40 cal suit then that guy in the red shirt behind him is too close.
@@bonusnudges lmao that went right over my head haha masks are impermiable.
Any job that requires a space suit like that, I wouldn’t even want to be in the fucking room.
♫ Come with me ♫
♫ and you'll be ♫
♫ in a world of OSHA violations ♫
osha doesn't apply to the phillipines
Rachmaninoff!
Why ? :D What did he do wrong ? :D Sorry I have no clue what's happening on the video :D
@@rixogtr No visible warning signs in the room, seemingly no lockout/tagout procedure (given that an unprotected dude just walks right in), guy doesn't even have a flashlight, doesn't test the metal enclosure for voltage, etc..
@@nameismetatoo4591 wow lol 😂 okay well that’s alarming hey 😂
great idea, when i see someone in really serious PPE, my first thought is always "I should stand inappropriately close to the work in just a regular t-shirt"
The protective gear is surprisingly similar to what I wear while digesting Taco Bell. One can never be too careful.
I wear the same when shitting after spicy KFC.
I would think you'd want to be wearing as little gear as possible in that situation
😂
@@mdswish :D
@@mdswish true shit, better get that shower ready
Even under the FR suit, that nylon football shirt could still melt to your skin during an arc flash.
Unless you using kevlar.
correct, stand to the side of the switch in case it blows the door off. If youve ever been by one that blew, it will make your knees buckle and you cant run. You can talk about it later when your hearing recovers. We were just talking about sabotaged switchgear and working in a school, slowly took off a side panel and sure enough was a two foot emt pipe in the top of the bus ready to roll down into it. Be careful working this stuff hot. The switches need to be long handled so you can push them with a stick from the side, we call it a chicken stick. Better to be a live chicken than a dead turkey.
Awesome to see.
In the early 90s i worked at a Siemens factory and we buildt these cabinets, hundreds of them, they are used for power supply of metro trains here.
I build a few of these myself.
Sorry for wrong words in english, i am german.
German engineers, the BEST 💪💪
We use to send the new guy at work to pull the lever on the big switch the first day on job. We had fireworks go off behind it. Always made for a good laugh. The switch was in own room no longer in use unpowered.
The fire control radar on my ship had a capacitor bank that charged to 85kv. And we discharged it with a 24” long plastic pole that had a hook and cable on the end. When maintenance required it be discharged, there were two of us in dungarees; one held the discharge tool, the other stood 3 feet away with his trouser belt in his hands to pull the other off in case things went awry. No giant safety suit, 8 times the voltage, huge capacitance values. Keep in mind this capacitor bank fed a 1 Megawatt radar system.
So you guys were fools and lucky to be alive. Cool.
But you had gray diamond tread matting, ET1
A) Don't confuse "the voltage is higher" with "it's much more dangerous". Your radar was 1Mwatt, the powerplants that supply these switches are in the gigawatt range so an explosion of one of these switches is much more violent than what the power of that ship could provide.
B) Discharging a large or high-voltage capacitor by shorting it out is a _very_ bad idea, usualy resulting in the tool getting vaporized, or at least permanently welded to the terminals. My guess is that you where tasked with shorting it out _after_ it had naturally discharged through the equipment, to prevent it from building up a new charge as people are working on it.
C) There may have been a reason why you had no protection: it wasn't that dangerous.
@@vinny142 you are correct. Upon further reflection, the unit was discharged prior to opening the cabinet. The hook was used to ground it rather than discharge it. The purpose being to keep it in a safe state. Thanks for the reminder, it has been over 40 years since I worked on that radar. No one was ever hurt by the big capacitor bank, yet it scared us the most.
Was that a 55Bravo GMFCS?
In the late 80's I worked on 11.8 or 12.5 Kv. here in Oregon. There was a lot of expansion going on in the plant and when they blew an arm sized fuse, I had to replace them, or we had to wait for the Electric Company. Not wanting the downtime, they asked me. I never did get used to that work.
The little "Woo!" when the power goes out? That's me.
here in south africa our people needs people like you with that kind of knowledgement to work with Eskom
This is awesome. After 10 years of Working with low voltage (1000VAC & 1500VDC), ill start a traineeship in high voltage.
Do ur best
We always thank our firemen, EMT's and first responders, but do we ever consider the brave one's who keep the lights on? Sure, they get paid for their job, but you would never see me on a high voltage powerline, I don't care how much you pay me. So my hat goes off to all the electrical workers of the world.
Thank you, it seems we are only important when the lights go out.
I have supervised guys like this for about 40 years. It gets pretty scary at times...
Or that we work Xmas or our families birthdays, work shift work and out on a 250’ boiler in 110° heat or this winter when it was -15°. We get pd well, but we suffer also. Thank you for your comment
@@tombrown1032 hook me up with a job please
Rick, speak on it son!
Working in that suit in August, in South Texas, is so much fun...
But if you ever witness an arc flash incident, you will gladly sweat your balls off for the protection it provides...
What about the electric train crews who have to short out the live electrified rails in an emergency? They don't get to wear such a suit, but just their uniforms! And those rails carry thousands of amps and it's DC so it's not self extinguishing. And I've seen that job being done only yards away at a station once. And the arcs on the rails from the collector shoes are often huge and light up all the surrounding area at night, I've seen it loads of times and even once used the arc to light up a photo at night. How about that?
@@majorpygge-phartt2643. Why is that done? What kind of emergency? Where is this done?
@@huntsbychainsaw5986 When there's any kind of emergency on a railway with live electrified rails the train crews have to get shorting bars out from the train and then use them to short out the live rails to trip out the breakers at the substations which feed the track so they can safely carry out whatever needs to be done, which might involve evacuating passengers and the only protection they have is insulating gloves. And I saw it being done once in the daytime. It's far more dangerous at night or inside a tunnel, especially in the freezing winter when it's icy and slippery. And the emergency could be a derailment or just a train broken down, or an obstruction on the track, or worse still a child on the live track getting burned. And I nearly had heart failure once at a station with live tracks where a little toddler was sat on the platform edge and I thought he was going to jump down onto the track, needless to say I intervened and got him safely away from it double quick! That was more than 30 years ago and it still haunts me.
@@majorpygge-phartt2643. Oh ok well... that sounds like a terrible plan... and that's plan A... apparently...
Sub stations around here trip 3 times before they go into fail safe so I can imagine how terrible that would be if they use that practice here.
@@majorpygge-phartt2643 afaik the shorting bars are only used for secondary protection, once power has already been cut, just to make sure noone switches back on while still in emergency or maintenance
And here I jump EVERY TIME when I connect up a new battery pack to a tiny 2U racked 2.2kVA UPS and it sparks while making a loud twack sound. Watching this video shortened my life. ;)
No emergency lighting in a room like this seems like some sort of safety hazard.
My station emergency lighting is built right into the drop ceiling fixtures so you’d never even know we have it unless you look for the rest buttons
I sure hope there isn't any emergency lightning!
Wait what 😂😂😂😂
@@chrisdenison3273 In a room with a big freaking switch that turns off an entire factory worth of power, please explain why you wouldn't want some battery powered emergency lightning so you can see what you're doing if the switch ever has to be turned off.
They probably have OSHIT and not OSHA.
That's me wiring in 240V a subpanel.
Thank God for people like this. If it was up to me we'd be living like it was 1822 'cause this is more NOPE than I can handle.
We took the class on arc safety. During the class I was thinking "hell no, never gonna do that". The next week the 480vac feed to the unit failed, and we had to service it. Never say never.
Plot twist: Forgets to discharge himself and zaps his buddies in a puff of smoke.
Irl Zeus
I have a IBEW lineman buddy that did this for a living, he now works fulltime maintenance for UPS making 50% more a year, and he does not have to work about dying everyday......
You take the chance of dying every day, no matter what you do.
Just a thought.
@@shickenchits8123 the probability of dying is far FAR less I would think
The way that UPS pushes people I wonder if he's really that much safer?
I like the fact that switch gear is simple to operate. After VCB was switched off/open, the racking out was made easily and withdrawal was simple. After the cable was proved dead, the earthing mechanism was then closed in the earthing position. Great design, no earth trunk required.
Banyakkan video switching lagi bro , smpai org luar negara pun tngk . Mmg mantap !
I once work at Tamco Switchgear Factory Malaysia HQ ( Shah Alam) my 2nd intern for my Chargeman A1, ive been testing these boards like this everyday for 6+months ,from mechanical ,physical , wiring, ct, vt , relay and etc. They also train me to do the exact routine as the video to test every single panel. Currently studying for Chargeman A4 and hoping to get into B0 11kv / 33kv and above . Keep it up guys ! 💪
Add fb sy, ade lagi video switching, boleh la sy share road to BO 33 kv
facebook.com/abdul.hakim.98
@@creator33kv Baik bro 🙏, thank you !
@@creator33kv Hey Just curious what country this is? Indonesia? Malaysia? Thanks for the upload, very interesting to see this kind of content :D
Malaysia
👍🏼👍🏼
I used to do power routines in the phone co. Even 24v plant is very dangerous as the lead acid batteries can put out huge amounts of current. We had a huge fire in one of our offices probably due to someone shorting out a string of batteries.
@@somedumbozzie1539 Yes insulated tools are must working around those batteries.
24v? What country? US is -48v. Tool shorting across should never create a fire. Even across a main buss the first thing that happens is the tool vaporizes. If that doesn't blow it right off there are shunts on every battery string. Equipment is usually the fire hazard. Draw enough current to start a fire, but not enough to trip breakers, and well below what it would take to activate a battery string shunt.
@@ShainAndrews blue,orange,green,Brown,slate✌
Remember getting a bunch of those batteries from a decomissioned cell site and building a 12V solar system with them. Yeah lots of current indeed. They were very similar to fork truck cells except bigger and real contact lugs with copper cores and brass bolts. 🤓.
@@ShainAndrews Lots of 24V in electromechanical switching. Cells could be 1800# each. Mutiple strings in parallel. All unfused to the power board.
Best & safest practice for switching all medium voltage gear is to have a remote operator about 25' from breaker. That way you do not have to suit up and a lot safer if an arc flash occurs. We always had to wear a 11 cal long sleeve shirt under 40 & 50 Cal suite.Have to suit up when racking a breaker in or out. Should no must have a second qualified worker suited up standing at least 10' to side in case of an arc flash to save primary worker.
The safest practice is to sit at home, watch a youtube video and comment telling others how you used to do it back in the day. 😂😅
@@2loco people/ clowns should not post vids on some thing that is not up to latest safety pratices. Little thing like OSHA will sue the hell out of any company who a person is killed or serious hurt. They came into my old company to investigate so many people getting carpal tunnel then ended up with a supena to remove all meducal records. Wrote up a lot of safety & electrical violations while there. Safety manager got fired and sparkies got lots if overtime fuxing violations.NEC states that electrical work must be performed by qualified people. If you halve ass your PPE safety gear you are an unqualified idiot.
This looked like servicing the switchgear, removing that large module and a small part placed near the camera after removal. Of cause there's a lot less elbow room servicing an 11kV substation out in the field, where the backup worker is in the service van 25' away.
Go by 70E for best safety procedures. saw no one suited up for stand-by. Two workers in area not suited. Not a good practice.
@@romankovalenko7438 Sorry I text any comment. I guess you are the EXPERT. I walk away. Throw safety out the door.
To all of you who perform this extraordinary dangerous work, thank you for your service!
As an IT person I have been with electricians when they switched transformers. In my experiences with 17kv you don't realize how much voltage that is until you see the look in the electrician's eyes as he approaches the transformer. So...in comparison to the electricians I have worked with why did this guy, a) work with metal tools, b) allow non-essential "spectators" within close proximity to the work, and c) is that orange suit non-conductive or what's its purpose? I know when you're dealing with this kind of voltage the arc boundary is surprisingly large and deserves your respect.
I'm thinking that wasn't a live setup - it looked like a training room to me. Certainly, the proving dead afterwards was a bit casual..That's not to say that high power 11KV can't be exciting - it will come out and get you and if it does you aren't walking away - hence the protective gear. But that gear looked awfully new and clean.. And the way the chap leaned into the cab once the switchgear had been pulled.. not me sir. Reach in with that proving pole first.. and I mean REACH.. Not that I have switched a lot of 11kv, but ..
th-cam.com/video/hfnEuRA7-vo/w-d-xo.html
suit isnt voltage proof; its just flame resistant to some degree. In case of arc flash, your typical plastic clothes would immediately melt in to your skin
As an electrician myself . Where I work , our protective clothing is just arc / flame retardant rated for the arc displacement rating of the equipment. We also wear an arc helmet and face shield with a arc/flame retardant balaclava with lineman rubber gloves for some situations we find ourselves working in at times. Very high voltage clothing or arc suits I would say have their metal zippers or buttons either incapsulated or covered under a flap.
That 40 cal suit just helps enough so they can identify the body if something were to happen
We used to switch 33KV on skid breakers used by Richards Bay Minerals in South Africa. No PPE like this and often in very remote locations where water etc was around. Very scary.
When I was a kid, I found an old neon sigh transformer. That thing generated 17,000 volts to ground. It could produce a two inch arc that was a half inch wide and it could cook through glass. Being the young Tesla protege that I imagined myself and with my rudimentary understanding of electricity, I procured a large wooden box to stand on and I could hold my finger two inches from the posative terminal and receive a nice little blue electrical arc without the fire. They sort of tickled. My buddy, who knew nothing about electricity, wanted to feel the tickle. I advised him to stand on the box and to heel his head low as we were in the basement and there were two large water pipes overhead and I was sure they were wello grounded. He got on the box, moved his finger around the terminal and he seemed delighted with the result, however, in his exuberence, he forgot the pipe. I was watching the little blue tenticle on his finger and it turned to a band of yellow fire, the smell of burning hair, a yelp and he was out of there in a flash. I kind of think that if this guy just had a wooden box, he might not need that orange suit.
It's not the volts that kill you, it's the Amps :)
@@cyberprog Thank you for that but I was talking about the difference between touching a terminal ungrounded and touching the same terminal grounded. No one was killed in this experiment.
@@pforce9 yes, but that's the point. This guy is working with the same levels of voltage as your neon transformer. But your neon transformer, increasing the voltage from I guess 110v AC would probably only be making a couple of hundred mA at 17kV. The transformer in this application is probably stepping down 11kV to 110v or something like that if I had to guess. But at hundreds of amps.
@@cyberprog That guy in the video was not working on anything remotely like my transformer, either in voltage or amperage. He had to get into a suit just to approach it. Basically, my original comment explained a situation much like a bird on a high tension wire. As long as he is not grounded, he can sit on that wire all day but if he contacts that wire and ground, he is toast. Amperage was not discussed because it was not relevant to my point.
@@cyberprog a severel hundred mA 17KV neon transformer is still plenty to kill you :) its ohms that matter!
Assalammualaikum Tuan...
Semoga dipermudahkan segalah pekerjaan kamu di dunia' dan akhirat...aamin🤲
Ameen Ya Rabbal Alamin
Jazakallah
hero! that's a shed load of power! Hat's off to the geezer in the orange soot and also whoever it was that invented electricity !!
Well, I don't know if everything was done to best practice as I'm not an electric plant worker (a thing or two looked questionable in the vid but will defer to someone who knows), BUT it makes me glad to know that what I deal with is fairly low end. Still lethal, but comparatively more tame.
Thanks for posting.
I build now for 20 Years Substaions and Switchstations like this.I like the Switchgears wehre you can put out the Switch and go inside. But i never go inside a System like this without using a Probestick to get shure there is no Charge.My Probestick and my PSA are my Lifeinsurance.
Yes safety is a must afriend is a lineman and his partner one day did not ground out and lost his limbs my friend could do nothing till after
I tested medium voltage gear. My tick tracer came out first. I also would check the blades on the station, sometimes they bust off.
Sometimes the ware would go "bang"!
Poorly design substation. Why should have ramp..? Transformer and Switchgear should be in separate room.. No emergency light.
The chargeman is total responsible for not fixing a emergency light in the transformer and switching room.
Use high voltage probe to check voltage.some probe for discharging.
Remind me of a time i had to install two sprinkler lines in an energized room. I don't know what the fancy, loud units were that seemed to be encased in Faraday cages are called, but they channeled electricity through a 31 floor office building. I did my best to be cautious, had a friendly firefighter who stationed himself out side the room(he was on fire watch duty because of the sprinklers being shutdown) For my own peace of mind, i had a threaded union out side of the room for each line. I did not complete the unions until all of my work inside the room was completed. Yeah, rooms like that tend to be intimidating.
If you have to put that much equipment on to turn something on or off I don't want any part of it. I don't even want to be in the same room as that equipment!
That's the correct behavior for anyone not trained to work on such equipment, and with the correct protection gear for such task.
Now, if only those two other randoms there were thinking like you...
I’m in agreement 100%!!!!!! You couldn’t pay me a million bucks to touch that damn thing!!!!! I have had one accident with electricity on the past.....that incident caused a phobia you wouldn’t believe!!!!! In my opinion if someone has no fear of this job your showing he shouldn’t be doing this job!!!! I would be petrified!!!!!!
@@stiaankruger2699 Except the fake Chinese ones your boss bought to save 5 bucks.
It's not too bad if the MCC room is air-conditioned.
And they are insurance incase something isn't right...
I would rather sweat my balls off than have to go through years of skin graphs or possible death.
I've used that amount of 'protection' when running .120" Flux-core welding wire...at 600 amps..
As per my experience, there should have been a pre-process of grounding the dead side before removing the VCB… this is a very safe procedure that must be followed… we never know about how much power was stored in the system… the risk of big arcing formation is always possible
Yes earthing the system yoy mean. Im looking at it too, seems that they didnt do it.
I have worked with ABB switchgears. There is always a mechanical interlock that prevents you from racking out until the earthing is executed.
Hi all, thanks your views, we take note all the comment, will improve any weakness.😃
Mis felicitaciones ¡¡¡¡ Muy buen uso del protocolo de seguridad usando correcta y adecuadamente el equipo de seguridad personal así como el comportamiento de otros miembros del equipo que en estos casos no debe estar sola la persona realizando actividades de riesgo
Like the back up emergency lighting in the switch room
Работает профессионал! Экипировка отличная!!!
Nice suit, I never had one of them but then we were forbidden from local switching of breakers but he should have unplugged the umbilical before pulling the breaker out.
The suit looked like “Among Us”. 😂
I can’t even begin to say how many things are wrong in this video! This is a good training video on what not to do! It’s clear no one has any training or understanding of the dangers they are facing. Wow!!
Care to point somethings out
We're all glad to have you on the job, Dudley Doright.
@@stargazer7644 I guess for some, ignorance is bliss!
@@pauldiesel4582 And others just make vague unsubstantiated claims as if they know something. They pretend like they're helping others, but they don't actually say anything that's useful.
@@stargazer7644 before you judge others, know what you are talking about! Apparently you have had no training in in NFPA 70E, otherwise you would know how bad this video is.
Yep, lets stand right behind the guy with the 40 cal suit, 8 feet away in a t shirt and watch. Nothing will ever go wrong.
Terbaekkk la abg chargeman😁. Moga dipermudahkan segala urusan
Amazed at how many of the tools are metalic.
Plastic or other materials that are less conductive would probably not survive the high forces exerted on them. In some cases the tools are simply metal because they are not in close proximity of live parts.
I know that there can also be cabinets that have tools inside of them, resting in positions in which they can't be taken out unless the proper procedure for powering down the particular part is followed, releasing some of the tools that allow you to finish the other steps in order.
Some electric locomotives and trains have this as well, the key for raising the pantograph or enabling main power fits the door to the engine room, but can't be taken out in the active position, for instance.
It prevents the operator from entering a room that might have lethal voltages present on some parts otherwise.
This has Grim written all over it...
Don't know if you guys noticed but on the right side of the cable trench there's a PVC pipe and a small electrical cable for a drain pump. It looks this room may flood from time to time, maybe that's the reason they elevated the switchgear cabinet. you can also see a sewer pipe in the ceiling. This substation would never be approved in my country...
So, let's pray.
Good catch. It's fairly insane.
It's a fairly typical subbasement environment. And notice how the pipes in the ceiling are not routed above the switchgear.
@Oleg Ivanov How about building it properly? Raised the switchgear but created a trip hazard at the same time. Most likely to trip up the person in the bomb disposal suit.
Is this possibly on a ship?
One of those jobs, where, if things go wrong, you won't have time to realize it.
Take note of the rust at the bottom of that switch enclosure. And why are those other guys standing there with no eye protection? I once was working on a 480volt three phase ATS. My meter pouch was on the top of the enclosure. As I pulled the meter leads out a small 18 gauge jumper fell out and landed inside the cabinet across two legs of the buss. The flash explosion blinded me and created a brief arc. I ran blind to the rear of the building hitting the wall. I took out the utility pole cut outs and a block of homes. Lesson learned. Wear safety gear always. Don’t leave anything on top of switch gear cabinets.
3:15 When you accidentally turn off power to the whole building.
Hold on to ya butts.
Work in a 125kv switchyard at night alone. That tap changer needs to be moved they said. What a fool I was.
Was it a tap that could be moved with energised from one side? Or complete insolation?
I was 11kv approved at 3 places where I worked. Racking breakers in and closing them on both island mode and into the UK grid.
Made my balls tingle every time!!!!
Haha... the guy spends ages suiting up into the arc flash protection, starts his mega kilovolt task.... then two blokes rock up with t-shirts and surgical masks on... quality!
Excuse me captain obvious. Didnt you know that the corona is so so deadly. Even more so that arc flash. 😂😂
There should be a second suited up to pull that man to need be.
indeed!
yes when I have seen people working 4160 switchgear they always had a 2nd guy with a rope tied around the worker to pull him out
If there is a main switch on the line there would be no risk at all
That’s exactly why those two guys were right behind him, the one with Mohawk would jump in if anything
@@alexkaban7860 If you ever saw what happens when there is an arc flash anyone nearby will be severely burned.
You know it's going to be good when the video starts with PPE
Been there. Done. That. Had my suit on. 13.8. Transformers. Let go. Stand there holding the switch. Glad I'd had the suit
Prime example of how not to design and operate a substation.
1) Where is the emergency lighting?? Not even going to bother with finding the code reference for it, that's basic safety right there. Worst case scenario ensure that you have a flashlight on hand when performing service.
2) Bystander needs to get the hell out of the room when service is being done to the equipment. Someone is just asking to be injured in the event of an arc-flash by not wearing PPE.
3) Ramp is a trip-hazard. Something tells me whoever designed this substation was not an engineer/wasn't an experienced engineer at best. Someone will trip and potentially grab the inside of the switchgear chasis for support, potentially putting themselves in a very dangerous situation. I use the word "will" because its a possibility. Eliminating the ramp will make that "will" into a "will not" scenario.
4) Transformer and switchgear should never be in the same room, no questions asked. Horrible idea and you don't even have to be an engineer to understand the problem. Transformers use oil to keep themselves cool and dissipate any heat that is created from the currents passing through the windings. In the event of an arc-flash scenario, a tonne of energy is released at once and the potential to start a fire is very likely. Oil is EXTREMELY flammable (not all, but most oils used for transformer cooling are). Putting a highly flammable substance next to a potentially large source of ignition is simply wrong. This scenario is only a ticking time bomb that the fire-department has yet to dis-arm.
5) Ventilation is missing. For the sake of keeping equipment cool, and fire safety, some means of ventilation is required. Doesn't need to run all the time, just be on standby in the event that a large cloud of smoke needs to be cleared out of the building.
Don't forget the open trench surrounding the switchgear!
@@fredsalter1915 lmaooo
I suspect that this is a training facility. Otherwise, why would the room be so large when the equipment is such a small fraction of the room?
@@sbreheny LOL! "Training Facility" in Indonesia???
@@fredsalter1915 Malaysia
This is going on the list of jobs I'm not willing to do.
Mmm. Top of my "unbucket" list
u definitely will think again, considering to do the job when you know how much u get paid
bro just went lights out in electrical full amogus mode
Glad to see the second guy is wearing a mask and the third guys has one on his chin.
I was on a cruise ship, in the main motor propulsion room during a 2 week refit in a Singapore dock. Suddenly, there was a loud bang and total black out before the emergency generators kicked in. We found out latter that a work had been asked to clean the main switch gear room. Without instructions, he opened a door that had 11,000 volts behind it and got zapped. He lived to tell the tail, 12 months latter, an Engineeer on the ship told us that he was still in hospital. he was lucky to be alive. Now, why did he opened the door, I sure that he was just asked to sweep the floor, was he also informed not to touch anything in the room and where was the sentry?
Given how there was a maintenance overhaul, someone might also have left the cabinet open, and he was just mopping around or anything without paying attention to his surroundings.
It's sort of the same how people without technical knowledge on low-voltage circuits (like computers and the like) tend to flinch when you poke around in it with a meter trying to look for a fault that was reported and say "Don't you need to be worried about getting shocked!?" and you need to explain that it's unlikely to get a shock from those parts, and that it's the power supply that's the dangerous part inside a computer.
If people don't know what 11kV switch gear looks like, somehow the daunting appearance of said parts might miss them completely and they might think: "Hey, that copper looks like it has some spots on it" *reaches with their cloth in an attempt to rub it off*.
To me, even without having the proper education in high voltage switch gear, most of it to me has the same kind of appearance and terrifying nature that some insects have: "Don't bother me or I'll sting or bite!"
Thought it was a broom cupboard.
I don't know what went on there but I sure enjoyed it.
greeting from foreman 33kv Tenaga Nasional Berhad Malaysia..Better Brighter
I serviced and built vacuum tube guitar amps for years. The one procedure for survival is the "thumb in the belt loop" trick.
If you make a mistake your work hand gets a jolt, instead of the current going across your chest, killing you.
Just suiting up for that scares the crap out of me
Totally agree, 11 kV is NO JOKE at all ! ! !
I've been a commercial Electrician for almost 30 years now and the thunderous noise... that bang, when it was tripped, brought back some strong emotions and memories.
The ex-wife's knees used to make a similar sound whenever I asked for sex.... sorry for getting emotional guy's but on the plus she IS my ex.
That is the problem with the old switchgear .. but with arc flash contaminetion classed switchgear you will not require to use such as protection PPE for switching .. but it will be required only for double check the absence of voltage before performing maintanance activites .
Reff: NFPA70E
Its needed to pull out breaker. For switching only, its not. atleast in my country :D Anyway, had a case in power plant, man was pushing in 6kV breaker into socket, and breaker had short circuit to case. The explosion just threw the man and the breaker far from the cabinet. He wasn't using the suit, but breaker body shielded the arc so nothing fatal happened luckily.
Never once have I had to suit up before opening or closing 11Kv circuit breakers, either oil or Vacuum interrupters. We had to take extra safety precautions before and after pulling the trucks out to change the oil on the surface in the winch room. Underground we used vacuum interrupters in the FLP face transformer, and outbye at the main subs they'd be OCB's.
This wasn't just "opening" in the sense of turning off the switch. It was opening in the sense of taking the thing apart.
Everyone s an Electrician
I used to eat lunch next to these things at the Airport. Wasn't aware they we're so dangerous. ⚡😮⚡😵⚡💀
Not likely. That is in a locked room. They would not put 11kV in an area open to the public, I don't think.
@@mckenziekeith7434 I was a Manager... I had access to every room in terminals B, C and D at LGA. I walked across jet ways and under planes, thru the belt return systems. Best job I ever had tbH.
@@OG_DSM wow! that does actually sound pretty interesting! Certainly a lot of places to eat lunch where nobody would bother you. Anyway, glad you never got fried.
@@mckenziekeith7434 while you had access, just because the units look similar does not mean they carried the same sort of voltage. This is very common design for electrical enclosures.
@@benargee did you mean to tag @Saab_lyfe190? I am not the one who had access.
That ppe arc suit looks more like a raincoat. We wore 40 calorie jump suits and helmets. We were advised that the headgear would be vaporized or blown off our heads if an arc fault occurred. No one else was allowed into the substation room until the job was complete and the panel door secured.
And me too, whenever we carry out such activities we wear >Hood, multi layer IFRC,cloves and 100% untreated natural fabric under garment, safety boots and our PPE are blue.
Could easily have ended is one of those safety videos where experts are explaining what went wrong.. Especially when some random dude came without protective gear and started pointing at things
Unless there was no real power on the circuit and he was the teacher telling the student what the dangers would be with power on.
@Resampling the objections listed are the result of decades of civilisation, rights, social and industrial evolution ,...in Asia there is no similar culture. An equipment built according to our western standards would cost a lot:more...if the equipment burns they will replace it in no time and little expenses ....these workers are easily replaceable and if they burn or die they can compensate them or relatives with some money
I honestly clicked the video because it looked like some dude portraying among us in the thumbnail...lmao!!
Idk but the vibe I get when those two other dudes are standing there is somewhere in the neighborhood of “F off and eat lunch I’m working here.”
Should the switchgear really be right there so close to the transformer? I thought indoor transformers were supposed to be in their own vaults?
Asia
Yes
Depends on what they do I guess, seen plenty in the same room on older designs. But newer ones are built separate with remote control.
@@matthewmaxwell-burton4549 Remote control is worthless for physical service of the kind shown. This switchgear is probably the remote controlled unit that protects the transformer, platform prevents transformer coolant from getting inside with someone calculating how high it would flood the floor with the cable trench sealed, then multiplied by a safety factor.
Do they make the safety gear bright orange so it's easier to find all the bits if it goes wrong?
It's probably more of a color meant to be easier visible in case of a blackout after a fault, along with possibly having different colors for different functions of workers.
In case of damaged clothing, it might also help to spot holes or tears easier, given that such a bright orange color is usually not something people will wear as regular clothing below their safety suit.
In The Netherlands, if you happen to know someone who works on the grid, you can get taken along on a visit to a substation where work is done. You get a particular color helmet and safety vest, to clearly indicate "I'm a visitor" so if someone who works there sees you somewhere without the person escorting you, or sees you with your hands out of your pocket in an area were people visiting are requested to keep them in their pockets, they know you might be unaware of the dangers and can immediately request you to leave or at least follow up the procedures.
That's how they power Rockwell's new Retro-Encambulator
I was nervous the whole time, mad respect!
To work on 480v three phase 1000A equipment for the U.S. Postal Service I had to wear a jump suit of the proper calorie rating, cotton clothes and leather shoes, three pairs of gloves - cotton, rubber (changed every 6 months), and thick leather gloves. Also, a pair of goggles, earplugs, and a hardhat with face shield. Before putting on the rubber gloves we had to roll them up to show no pinhole leaks of air existed. A pinhole could get you killed. After turning off the power to the equipment we had to prove the equipment at each phase and cross phases with a VOM rated CAT III for AC, and then for DC (high capacity caps). THEN we could work on the equipment. Oh, the equipment power was turned off in TWO places - at the machine breaker 1, and then up at the box breaker. Then lockouts of course.
Should have been CAT IV tho ;)
@@sumilidero "CAT III - Equipment in fixed installations, such as switchgear and polyphase motors" I was working on polyphase motors.
@@davidsault9698 fair enough, but for 1000Amp connection I think cat III is on the edge tbh. We use always cat 4 on such high short-circuit power test points; and cat 3 at small distribution panels with supply like 400V and