I may be wrong, but the arrestor will have a gap inside so no power is lost to ground in normal operation, but lightning level voltage will jump the gap. The gap is made of leads - one to the hot and the other to ground. The tip of each lead is a "ball" - the balls are a specific distance appart so the 69kV (or whatever) won't spark across to the ground side - but lightning, at much higher voltage will easily cross over and ground out - thereby lessening (not eliminating) the energy from the strike going down the power line - or into the transformer. Resistance may be added so the gap doesn't erode quickly or the gap itself is the resistance.
They have a few different designs as well, I have an old all glass Westinghouse arrestor that looks like it is full of metal beads. Some have MOV (Metal Oxide Varistor) disks stacked with solid or toothed metal plates between each one, others are an air gap as you described.... a lot of cool options out there!
@@AlanTheBeast100 You're welcome. I've studied power transmission and distribution for decades. Never did lineman work though...heights are not my strong point.
Spark gaps are ideal for this because the arc starting is based on voltage, but the ending is based on current. So you can set the breakdown voltage at, say, 500kV, but the arc won't end until the current from the lightning has passed. Simple, doesn't waste power, and reasonably cheap compared to any alternative. The two big downsides are (1) they can only arc for so long before the contacts erode away from the high-energy plasma and (2) The arc emits broad-spectrum EMF. But honestly, for the short bursts of time they are needed, it isn't usually an issue.
@@piisfun The problem is not the lightning discharge itself, it is that the discharge opens a path to ground for the 60Hz power circuit. So with nothing to stop the 60Hz follow current, you would have the brief lightning arc then a strong arc of the 60Hz power circuit continuing until other parts of the system fail.
Hey man! Been watching for about 6months and I’m currently in lineman school! Enjoying my time and learning all the basics! Thanks for helping me understand and learn about Substations and the world of line work
Im not a lineman.... I have discovered you videos..... I love them..... I really have no idea what im looking at..... but now I can say "hey.... thats a fuse" when i look at a line in my neighborhood..... lol... thanks.
Same lol. Not a lineman but thanks to these videos I can now identify and explain such devices like Cutouts, voltage regulators, reclosers, capacitor banks, sectionalizer gang switches etc...
When I was in high school in the 1960s I took electronics class. We repaired mostly tube/valve radios and TVs for relatives, friends, and faculty. If we turned the radio on and after warming up (5-10 seconds) heard that 60 cycle (now Hz) hum from the speaker we knew it needed a new filter capacitor. Certain scientific names were changed by an international committee in Switzerland in 1968. Cycles were changed to Hertz. Centigrade temperature was changed to Celsius. Only the name was changed, scale and abbreviation stayed the same. Some of us old timers still prefer to use the old terms.
Good on mentioning to check all the grounding/bonding, seems copper thefts are on the rise again. A few sites I maintain have had pole grounds cut off from grade to about head height.
@@MrMarty5555 the glass insulators will keep their mechanical loading abilities if contamination or something breaks a bell and you can visually see the failure unlike porcelain or composite
Fascinating as always. I may watch this several times to digest it all. One thing I do know is that is the last place I would want to be if something goes wrong. Thank you, Aaron! Stay safe, and God bless.
As someone who visits substations in the Netherlands on a regular basis, it's still very interesting to see how it's done in rural North America! Even though quite a few things are similar, of course. It's a bit weird to see 3 seperate voltage regulators. Here, voltage regulation is pretty much always integrated in the power transformer. And they regulate the high voltage side of the transformer, because the currents there are way lower.
It's also weird that they use 3 single-phase pole transformers instead of 1 3-phase transformer. And thet allow 25 Ohms for grounding system resistance. In Hungary it must be under 2 Ohms, probaly similar values in other European countries.
Ahhh, step voltage regulators ....... one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment beaten only by cap banks. Vital and useful little beasts, but don't get on their bad side! I've seen them both fail in person, it is not pretty and very scary at the same time. (one of the regulator failures was on a single phase line, and it was due to an internal mistake with the tap changer. It was NOT in the neutral position as the indicator showed, and when it was energized the sounds were evil right before it blew up. The lineman wasn't seriously injured, but did lose his hearing, about 10 years off his life, and a pair of shorts. I lost the last two.)
I mentioned in another video where one cooperative in ND had a regulator fail and the resulting fire caused enough damage the coop had to replace everything on the low-side structure, pour a new regulator pad, AND replace the control hut.
Good evening brother!!!!! We just started installing trip savers on our system. Tried to load bust one a few weeks ago. I sent er and could not pull it open. Called a service man I know and he informed me to flip the handle up and down 6 times. They drop after about 20 seconds to give you time to fly away. I’m sure you already knew that. Also since we have tree wire we have rolled up on hot wire down. Because the trip save opens on initial fault but once the wire is on the ground and the tail is isolated she closes back in and pick up the up stream load. These need to be treated just like any other breaker. Also had a complaint of people power going out and coming back on randomly for a week. Drove out the line and the primary was down and swinging in the breeze. Once in a while it would hit the neutral trip the trip saver, the tail would be clear and it would close back in and pick up the outage. Until it would randomly happen again. If it was a fuse it would have blown and the primary would have been fixed the first time. So they benefit the utility but they have their draw backs. Especially on a system with tree wire.
We've definitely had some similar situations here. Like you said, definitely some positives and negatives! The second generation ones that drop open are much better of course. I'm still not a fan of closing them in... If A fella has never closed one in before, best to practice on one before doing live in the field! They drop back open quite easy if ya don't givem enough force! They are fully capable and manufacturer recommended to function on their own, but having a solid blade cutout to pick up the load for ya is definitely a weight of the chest! Lol
@@Bobsdecline before I knew they had the load bust function I did consider using the load break load pick up tool in order to lift the taps then drop the load with LB/LPU tool
69Kv comes in... and then connects to the HT lines with dental floss. I understand the physics but sometimes it really amazes me that over 300Kv can run on wires that look like and extension cord.
Just wanted to say thank you for for the hard work all you people did after the storm. was without power for six and a half days of sweating but I didn't have to work out in the sun like you all did. Again thanks for getting the power back on. I'm a little southwest of Houston.
3 days is about right to recover from a trip back from my neck of the woods. I live in Hutto and this is the first area where I have seen auto-reclosures. There is a full sized 3 phase one behind me because the circut crosses over a road. At the end of my street, we have a single phase one that was put in ehen the power company did away with the 7200 feeds and went to all pad mount transformers. We have about 8 pad mounts on this one block and it is fed by the single phase drop. Keep up the good work on the videos. I like that you think safety first.
Cool sub station walkthrough. Not being in the biz, never thought much about how wind or solar farms connect to the grid. I did not realize the substations are owned by the farm.
"I did not realize the substations are owned by the farm." I know that BUYing power, your best deal is "bus voltage", 69KV, and you break it down to your 240V lamps and 600V motors. I never thought, but makes sense, that SELLing power, you get the best price if it is already stepped-up and ready to travel. So yeah--- the larger farms will have substation gear. BTW: windmills probably make 1,000V so need step-up, but Solar Cells can be as low as 0.6V and need a LOT of step-up. Physically it makes sense to rig them in series to maybe 100V or 600V, then transformers (and inverters to fine-trim the voltage) to multiply to 7KV or 69KV.
5:30 Ohhh so that's what those are for!! We have a sub here in Idaho I've looked at a few times that had the standoffs with lose wire on them. Couldn't figure out what they where for! Now I know! Thanks!
They look like S&C trip savers. We were told not to use them on 3 phase because they talk via Bluetooth which would violate our cyber security policies. Also there’s a recall on some batches made in 2023 and early 2024. Due to the curing process of the internal device it will not operate correctly. We are also telling lineman not to use them as Non-reclosing devices and to go to the breaker or up stream recloser. They have a maximum amp setting that past that number it will NOT open in an attempt to save the device which would be a detriment to the lineman downstream. That number is roughly 6000 amps I believe. Just went through some training on this the other day. Maybe they’ll have a place in the system but so far they seem like a headache lol.
The main thing that helps the lightning arrester do its thing is a block of "nonlinear" resistance. While the arrester allows the lightning surge to drain safely to ground, it unfortunately opens a path to ground for the heavier 60Hz current. The nonlinear resistance works such that each time the alternating current returns to zero, the resistance exponentially increases. The effect is such that the follow current is stopped within a few cycles.
@@deineroehre Here in Sweden we use relays on everything above 10kV, only exceptions being the step-down substations to low voltage (the equivalent to your pole pigs and pad mount transformers, ours just server somewhat larger areas, typically around 100 - 150 households per transformer). Sure they're more expensive but also more reliable and are much better at detecting faults than fuses
I'm intrigued about the various transmission voltages in use around the world. In the UK we work on 11 kV local then step up in standard increments 33kV, 66kV, 132kV, 275kV, 400kV. The 275 and 400 overhead lines run in dual and quad conductor arrangements.
FPL, at least in Ft Lauderdale and probably system wide is using the trip savers on everything. Even for residential pole top transformers. Guess they are really trying to cut out the work for the linemen and ultimately reduce the workforce. I am sure it's a presented as a better SADI number, not a headcount reduction number though. Why were the grounds on the regulators painted with cold gal or gray paint? Keep the tweekers from seeing copper? Great walk through as always..... finally starting to get the itch to get back to work myself.
@@liam3284 I am missing your point, can you explain what you mean more damage is done? Normally these will trip and reset instead of blow a fuse and save a truck roll for someone to replace the fuse. I haven't seen these do more damage than a fuse when installed.
There's a few span of these 69kv lines running through a field near me... sizzle sounds when it's very foggy and damp out. Sometimes see a bit of corona discharge too.
i used to collect glass insulators, and I love to see them still in service. I thought I read elsewhere that some utility companies are using them once again because of their advantages, not sure if It's true or not...
Wow, that was a great video. One question. A few weeks ago after hurricane Helene came through SC, I noticed crews were using a vacuum truck to suck up all the gravel from a fairly large substation. What type of damage/fault could require that type of work?
Another great video, Aaron! Question for you.... Big controversy here in NJ over the plans for offshore wind farms. The people who live in the town where the underwater cable is planned to come ashore are concerned about safety and the potential effect on their property values. The plan is to run them UG for quite a distance (miles) on their way to the first substation. I'm a EE and I had a friend there ask me if the fears were legit. I couldn't answer him because I didn't know what voltages they'd be running on the cables from the windfall to land and what kind of UG cable was planned, depth, etc. I'd appreciate your thoughts. Have you had any experience with windfarm transmission lines? Thanks!
You were in Texas ?! You must have thought you were in a furnace coming from Canada I passed through Texas in late June and I’m from Florida and I thought Texas was a furnace 🥵🥴😳
I didn't know that there were privately owned substations of that size. To be precise that privately owned substation is probably fed at 34.5 KV, which is a standard local distribution voltage.
@@jolyonwelsh9834 At least in the Netherlands, car charging stations get their own padmount transformer, but they are mostly connected to regular distribution voltage (here, 10 or 20 kV phase to phase). The total power is often 1-2 MW. They probably get a custom low voltage, because the car battery voltages nowadays can be up to 800V.
You should see the private substation Amazon has near their distribution center near me. It's hard to see across it. Has the longest bus lines I've ever seen.
What size are the 69kV transmission lines, and how much current are they rated for ? I imagine in cold weather they self-heat enough to prevent ice buildup.
Aaron, thanks for the video. I have a question. Have you ever had a recloser fail in a way that it continually opens and closes, but doesn't lock out? I'm in Pennsylvania in the U. S. and I'm used to reclosers that try up to 3 times and then lock out. A few weeks ago at work, our power went out, but came back in maybe 5 seconds. It was on for maybe 5 seconds and went out again. But unlike what I'm used to, it kept cycling on and off for maybe 6 minutes! One of our electrical engineers said "thats not a recloser". I thought the same, but a couple days later, another employee said it was due to a traffic accident and other buildings in our area lost power too. Could it have been a defective recloser?
That's what happened in the western suburbs of Reading, PA. PPL territory. Never in all my life ever experienced that. On and off about every 5 or so seconds. Shut off power to the whole house after the first several. Fortunately, power was restored about 10 minutes or something later. Never did hear the cause. PPL while overall reliable is seemingly slipping in service. Not necessarily on equipment, but staffing levels.
@@ronbennett7885 That's really interesting. I'm hoping Aaron will reply. I didn't try to time the events, so my times may be significantly off. I really thought it was the switchgear in our building until I heard that a large store next to our building also lost power. I don't know how reclosers work internally, but I'm sure Aaron does. Like you, I was concerned about damage and unplugged my computer when I saw it was continuing. The other thing I noticed is that our lights didn't flicker or go dim. They went completely off, then completely on.
@ronbennett7885 I re-read your comment and looked up PPL service areas around Reading PA. Our office is next to Khols in Wyomissing and it looks like that's PPL. We have a mix of PPL and MetEd and I thought Wyomissing was MetEd, but apparently it's not. The incident we experienced was on Tuesday, Sept 10th around 5 PM.
That's actually normal... Kind of. Depending on the recloser settings, a fault could hit the "sweet spot". The fault current may not be high enough for immediate lock out with intervals far enough apart that it allows for the "3 shot" sequence to reset.
@@jaygosch8705 The boundary lines are odd. Some parts of Western Berks and Morgantown area are in PPL. Most of Berks is MetEd. From my interpretation of the outage maps, guessing a substation on or near Penn Ave somewhere between Wyomissing out towards Sinking Spring. Didn't see any news about accidents into powerlines. If it did, probably Wyomissing Borough or Spring Township. Both post police blotters. Might take a look later.
I wonder if this is similar to one they tore down here in Winnipeg? It's still mind blowing to me that these things can be decommissioned and torn down seemingly without any major interruptions, and why they eliminate them. I guess I'll continue watching the video lol. PS. Still hoping to see more about open neutrals and any examples you have of them finding alternate paths back to the pole. I think I previously mentioned the call I had a month or two ago where the aerial coax was melted nearly the entire length, but I've since found out another tech went back for the same issue, but they also had the maintenance dept come out and change the tap as it might've been feeding voltage back towards the cx. I'm not sure I believe that cuz you'd think that all the drops off that tap would melt as well. Anyway, sorry for the long post. Take care!
Center point in houston texas installed trip savers around my neighborhood after the last hurricane hit and had no power for 5 days only time will tell if they work.
Civilians should respect flag law and the flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever, to quote flag law. I used to wear a Federal uniform and a Federal badge and drive a government truck, but my uniform did not feature a flag patch. Flag lapel pins to be worn on the left side over the heart were the proper way according to 4 U.S. Code § 8 - Respect for flag.
I find myself staring at substations with much more idea of what's going on now. Especially transmission side (I've worked on 11kv distribution side before, all u/g though), but distribution and transmission are utterly different kettles of fish. Also I notice more details, like ground bonding etc etc
Privately owned, windmills and tapping into mains. Sounds like that privately owned is corporate owned and probably took a grant and is getting paid for their services as well. If I had my own substation then I'd be lighting a town up like in fallout.
I believe the intent here is that privately owned means not owned by their utility company, which means any work done is by an outside contractor. The fact that Aaron is doing the inspection is likely contractual to meet local safety standards and compatibility with the utility.
I find it unbelievable that some people are stupid enough to cut the fence to steal bond and ground straps. The buzzing noise should be warning enough.
These big voltage regulators on the distribution lines are weird to me. Anyone doing this kind of work in Europe here that could tell me if we have those? I've never seen anything like it anywhere here in Norway. We have very long 22kV lines in many places.
bob can you talk about the difference between united staters power grid and canada power grid, any differences, is here sharing, of power between countries
Really, there isn't that much difference between the two - while the US has three types of electric distribution utilities (municipally owned, cooperative, and investor-owned), Canada's utility industry is pretty much one provider per province (Ontario Hydro, Manitoba Hydro, SaskPower, etc.). There are lines running between the two countries as Canada basically has a surplus of power generation, but those lines require special permits between the two countries. I know of two Canadian towns (Emerson, MB and North Portal, SK) that were once served from a distribution system on the other side of the border (Noyes, MN and Portal, ND respectively).
There are detail differences, like between any two company's rulebooks. And legacy differences in funding: I know Nova Scotia Power has been through phases not often seen in the US, but that's banking and politics, not really Power. Mostly the two countries do similar things. Power crosses the border when that is best. Upper-right part of Maine US only gets power from a Canadian source cuz the woods and hills are rugged. Massachusetts just inked a deal to ferry Quebec juice non-stop through Maine to power Mass's electric cars and stoves. MUCH power goes everywhichway borderless. Look-up (or remember) "blackout November 9, 1965". Overloaded 230KV lines in Ontario cascaded to New York lines pop pop pop pop. 30 Million customers in 8 states and 2 provinces left in the dark. Commuters walking(!) across the Brooklyn Bridge cuz the electric subways were out. That was so much fun, they did a similar blackout in 2003. Overloaded lines sagged, but dues to bug the fault was not reported. Other lines tried to carry the overload and they failed. More customers darkened (on both sides). Now we found that cellphone towers only go a few hour on battery. But we also saw the Milky Way in light-blighted cities which never see it.
I didn't know how fast the sound of potential lethality would become so annoying. Everything in that place is literally reaching out trying to kill you. Z E R O forgiveness.
The cause of the physical manifestation of the transformer's hum is pretty interesting. The hum represents wasted magnetic energy in the core. In and of itself, that isn't dangerous.
![[안방1열 풀캠4K] 베이비몬스터 'DRIP' (BABYMONSTER FullCam)│@SBS Inkigayo 241110](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AQ4RIghEvUs/mqdefault.jpg)
I may be wrong, but the arrestor will have a gap inside so no power is lost to ground in normal operation, but lightning level voltage will jump the gap. The gap is made of leads - one to the hot and the other to ground. The tip of each lead is a "ball" - the balls are a specific distance appart so the 69kV (or whatever) won't spark across to the ground side - but lightning, at much higher voltage will easily cross over and ground out - thereby lessening (not eliminating) the energy from the strike going down the power line - or into the transformer.
Resistance may be added so the gap doesn't erode quickly or the gap itself is the resistance.
They have a few different designs as well, I have an old all glass Westinghouse arrestor that looks like it is full of metal beads. Some have MOV (Metal Oxide Varistor) disks stacked with solid or toothed metal plates between each one, others are an air gap as you described.... a lot of cool options out there!
@@mxslick50 Good points - thanks. I think it all comes down to a path that the correct voltage cannot bridge, but higher voltages will push through.
@@AlanTheBeast100 You're welcome. I've studied power transmission and distribution for decades. Never did lineman work though...heights are not my strong point.
Spark gaps are ideal for this because the arc starting is based on voltage, but the ending is based on current.
So you can set the breakdown voltage at, say, 500kV, but the arc won't end until the current from the lightning has passed.
Simple, doesn't waste power, and reasonably cheap compared to any alternative.
The two big downsides are (1) they can only arc for so long before the contacts erode away from the high-energy plasma and (2) The arc emits broad-spectrum EMF.
But honestly, for the short bursts of time they are needed, it isn't usually an issue.
@@piisfun The problem is not the lightning discharge itself, it is that the discharge opens a path to ground for the 60Hz power circuit. So with nothing to stop the 60Hz follow current, you would have the brief lightning arc then a strong arc of the 60Hz power circuit continuing until other parts of the system fail.
I haven't been an electrician for 49 years and that background hum still puts me on alert.
Thought it was just me😊
I love that Milwaukee Tools Bobsdecline hard hat! Great post.
The pic on the helmet of you with the hard hat on should have a tiny pic of you on the tiny hard hat.
Hahah, that's a genius idea!
Hey man! Been watching for about 6months and I’m currently in lineman school! Enjoying my time and learning all the basics! Thanks for helping me understand and learn about Substations and the world of line work
Im not a lineman.... I have discovered you videos..... I love them..... I really have no idea what im looking at..... but now I can say "hey.... thats a fuse" when i look at a line in my neighborhood..... lol... thanks.
Same lol. Not a lineman but thanks to these videos I can now identify and explain such devices like Cutouts, voltage regulators, reclosers, capacitor banks, sectionalizer gang switches etc...
that sure was one nice hum, bit different from our 50hz in uk, made a change 👍
When I was in high school in the 1960s I took electronics class. We repaired mostly tube/valve radios and TVs for relatives, friends, and faculty. If we turned the radio on and after warming up (5-10 seconds) heard that 60 cycle (now Hz) hum from the speaker we knew it needed a new filter capacitor. Certain scientific names were changed by an international committee in Switzerland in 1968. Cycles were changed to Hertz. Centigrade temperature was changed to Celsius. Only the name was changed, scale and abbreviation stayed the same. Some of us old timers still prefer to use the old terms.
Watching your channel is the equivalent of an 8 year old boy playing with Hot Wheels in the sandbox. So cool!
Lol sweet!
Good on mentioning to check all the grounding/bonding, seems copper thefts are on the rise again. A few sites I maintain have had pole grounds cut off from grade to about head height.
I like the old glass insulators
@@MrMarty5555 the glass insulators will keep their mechanical loading abilities if contamination or something breaks a bell and you can visually see the failure unlike porcelain or composite
Thank you for taking the time
At 4:30, that hum is magnificent!
Fascinating as always. I may watch this several times to digest it all. One thing I do know is that is the last place I would want to be if something goes wrong. Thank you, Aaron! Stay safe, and God bless.
As someone who visits substations in the Netherlands on a regular basis, it's still very interesting to see how it's done in rural North America! Even though quite a few things are similar, of course.
It's a bit weird to see 3 seperate voltage regulators. Here, voltage regulation is pretty much always integrated in the power transformer. And they regulate the high voltage side of the transformer, because the currents there are way lower.
It's also weird that they use 3 single-phase pole transformers instead of 1 3-phase transformer. And thet allow 25 Ohms for grounding system resistance. In Hungary it must be under 2 Ohms, probaly similar values in other European countries.
Been waiting a long time to see a video with trip savers unless you've already done one before and I just happened to miss it.
A bear climbing up onto the primary leads of a 69kV power transformer is bound to have a significant emotional experience. And make quite the mess.
Ahhh, step voltage regulators ....... one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment beaten only by cap banks. Vital and useful little beasts, but don't get on their bad side! I've seen them both fail in person, it is not pretty and very scary at the same time. (one of the regulator failures was on a single phase line, and it was due to an internal mistake with the tap changer. It was NOT in the neutral position as the indicator showed, and when it was energized the sounds were evil right before it blew up. The lineman wasn't seriously injured, but did lose his hearing, about 10 years off his life, and a pair of shorts. I lost the last two.)
I mentioned in another video where one cooperative in ND had a regulator fail and the resulting fire caused enough damage the coop had to replace everything on the low-side structure, pour a new regulator pad, AND replace the control hut.
Greetings from Algeria. Although the distribution of energy is different from yours, the electrical hazards and hard work remain the same.
Fairly large substation, really??? Keep up the great work. I hope you got some good BBQ and few quesadillas👊
I mean, it's no Mesa! Hahah
Quesadillas are my fav!
Thank GOD there are people Smarter than us that knows what you and your co-workers know. Thanks for keeping up with Technology and keeping Power ON.👍🙏
Good evening brother!!!!! We just started installing trip savers on our system. Tried to load bust one a few weeks ago. I sent er and could not pull it open. Called a service man I know and he informed me to flip the handle up and down 6 times. They drop after about 20 seconds to give you time to fly away. I’m sure you already knew that. Also since we have tree wire we have rolled up on hot wire down. Because the trip save opens on initial fault but once the wire is on the ground and the tail is isolated she closes back in and pick up the up stream load. These need to be treated just like any other breaker. Also had a complaint of people power going out and coming back on randomly for a week. Drove out the line and the primary was down and swinging in the breeze. Once in a while it would hit the neutral trip the trip saver, the tail would be clear and it would close back in and pick up the outage. Until it would randomly happen again. If it was a fuse it would have blown and the primary would have been fixed the first time. So they benefit the utility but they have their draw backs. Especially on a system with tree wire.
We've definitely had some similar situations here. Like you said, definitely some positives and negatives! The second generation ones that drop open are much better of course. I'm still not a fan of closing them in... If A fella has never closed one in before, best to practice on one before doing live in the field! They drop back open quite easy if ya don't givem enough force!
They are fully capable and manufacturer recommended to function on their own, but having a solid blade cutout to pick up the load for ya is definitely a weight of the chest! Lol
@@Bobsdecline before I knew they had the load bust function I did consider using the load break load pick up tool in order to lift the taps then drop the load with LB/LPU tool
I enjoyed this style of video, even in the absence of editing.
You do such a great job explaining the equipment function. It makes me really appreciate all that goes into turning my lights on! Bob
69Kv comes in... and then connects to the HT lines with dental floss. I understand the physics but sometimes it really amazes me that over 300Kv can run on wires that look like and extension cord.
Just wanted to say thank you for for the hard work all you people did after the storm. was without power for six and a half days of sweating but I didn't have to work out in the sun like you all did. Again thanks for getting the power back on. I'm a little southwest of Houston.
Hi how are you I am in Florida I do enjoy your videos watching your videos that makes me respect the lines man what they do and say thank you
Great tour of the substation!
Great video man👍 and very interesting as always!
Cool hard hat👍
Re camera work, you're kind of dizzy is a-okay for us geeks out here 😎
Cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.
You got a new hard hat, moving on up there Aaron
3 days is about right to recover from a trip back from my neck of the woods. I live in Hutto and this is the first area where I have seen auto-reclosures. There is a full sized 3 phase one behind me because the circut crosses over a road. At the end of my street, we have a single phase one that was put in ehen the power company did away with the 7200 feeds and went to all pad mount transformers. We have about 8 pad mounts on this one block and it is fed by the single phase drop. Keep up the good work on the videos. I like that you think safety first.
retired Substation Relay Technician /PacificCorp RMP placed a few Mobile subs into service over the years....
clean power, dirty sky
Cool sub station walkthrough. Not being in the biz, never thought much about how wind or solar farms connect to the grid. I did not realize the substations are owned by the farm.
"I did not realize the substations are owned by the farm." I know that BUYing power, your best deal is "bus voltage", 69KV, and you break it down to your 240V lamps and 600V motors. I never thought, but makes sense, that SELLing power, you get the best price if it is already stepped-up and ready to travel. So yeah--- the larger farms will have substation gear.
BTW: windmills probably make 1,000V so need step-up, but Solar Cells can be as low as 0.6V and need a LOT of step-up. Physically it makes sense to rig them in series to maybe 100V or 600V, then transformers (and inverters to fine-trim the voltage) to multiply to 7KV or 69KV.
They likely handle more power than the rural substation next door.
Very interesting, thanks for all you do
5:30
Ohhh so that's what those are for!! We have a sub here in Idaho I've looked at a few times that had the standoffs with lose wire on them. Couldn't figure out what they where for! Now I know! Thanks!
Great explanation of a sub station! Very interesting!
They look like S&C trip savers. We were told not to use them on 3 phase because they talk via Bluetooth which would violate our cyber security policies. Also there’s a recall on some batches made in 2023 and early 2024. Due to the curing process of the internal device it will not operate correctly.
We are also telling lineman not to use them as Non-reclosing devices and to go to the breaker or up stream recloser. They have a maximum amp setting that past that number it will NOT open in an attempt to save the device which would be a detriment to the lineman downstream. That number is roughly 6000 amps I believe.
Just went through some training on this the other day. Maybe they’ll have a place in the system but so far they seem like a headache lol.
Bluetooth on critical infrastructure? Oh, that's less than idea. Yikes!
Isn't the bluetooth read-only to see a history of trips?
That’s a handy little blade.
The main thing that helps the lightning arrester do its thing is a block of "nonlinear" resistance. While the arrester allows the lightning surge to drain safely to ground, it unfortunately opens a path to ground for the heavier 60Hz current. The nonlinear resistance works such that each time the alternating current returns to zero, the resistance exponentially increases. The effect is such that the follow current is stopped within a few cycles.
Very cool
I love that hum. You should just record a few hours of that. I bet you'd hit a few millions views.
It's probably already on TH-cam.
It is easy enough to recreate in your favorite audio software. You can even pick your favorite frequency. Add some harmonics and you're all set.
Nice hat.
thanks for the info !!
That hum is definitely 5 warning to stay away from this sub station
Especially in abandoned building videos plus water .. power station some fool broke into
cool hard hat
I'll probably never stop being amazed how even at these voltages (like the 69kV here) you guys still use fuses for protection
What else should be used? They are (rather) cheap and if they blow, everyone in the perimeter of roughly 50 Meters is well informed of the blowing...
@@deineroehre Here in Sweden we use relays on everything above 10kV, only exceptions being the step-down substations to low voltage (the equivalent to your pole pigs and pad mount transformers, ours just server somewhat larger areas, typically around 100 - 150 households per transformer). Sure they're more expensive but also more reliable and are much better at detecting faults than fuses
awesome!
I once saw a railroad crossing gate come in contact with the 21kv overhead catenary. This was accompanied by a very loud BOOM!
Crazy!
I'm intrigued about the various transmission voltages in use around the world. In the UK we work on 11 kV local then step up in standard increments 33kV, 66kV, 132kV, 275kV, 400kV. The 275 and 400 overhead lines run in dual and quad conductor arrangements.
Australia is similar, although there are variations between states. NSW uses 33, 66, 132, 220, 330 & 500 kV.
FPL, at least in Ft Lauderdale and probably system wide is using the trip savers on everything. Even for residential pole top transformers. Guess they are really trying to cut out the work for the linemen and ultimately reduce the workforce. I am sure it's a presented as a better SADI number, not a headcount reduction number though.
Why were the grounds on the regulators painted with cold gal or gray paint? Keep the tweekers from seeing copper?
Great walk through as always..... finally starting to get the itch to get back to work myself.
seems like a false economy, when faults do occur, more damage ia done.
@@liam3284 I am missing your point, can you explain what you mean more damage is done? Normally these will trip and reset instead of blow a fuse and save a truck roll for someone to replace the fuse. I haven't seen these do more damage than a fuse when installed.
There's a few span of these 69kv lines running through a field near me... sizzle sounds when it's very foggy and damp out. Sometimes see a bit of corona discharge too.
Dang dude wish I knew you were in Texas. Could have given you a tour of a few large utilities in the central area.
Next time!! 🤝
I checked out the other substation video
69 kV... Nice
i used to collect glass insulators, and I love to see them still in service. I thought I read elsewhere that some utility companies are using them once again because of their advantages, not sure if It's true or not...
They seem to be quite common in Australia, wherever they are in tension.
Interesting overview of substation and ingredients. 🎉
Wondering why a "Faraday Pole" was not visible in video?
Wow, that was a great video. One question. A few weeks ago after hurricane Helene came through SC, I noticed crews were using a vacuum truck to suck up all the gravel from a fairly large substation. What type of damage/fault could require that type of work?
Aaron, great short. Thanks for sharing, as usual. Did you mean to say, "high resistance to ground"? That is, concerning the lightning arrestors?
I've been to Texas! YeeHaa! Has Bob seen the "Russian SubStation - Half Life 2" video?
It would be cool if you had some bobsdecline stickers made to sell.
nice hard hat so long as corporate Safety dept approves....
I was wondering about those voltage regulators. Are they auto-transformers that adjust to different taps?
Yes.
Another great video, Aaron! Question for you.... Big controversy here in NJ over the plans for offshore wind farms. The people who live in the town where the underwater cable is planned to come ashore are concerned about safety and the potential effect on their property values. The plan is to run them UG for quite a distance (miles) on their way to the first substation. I'm a EE and I had a friend there ask me if the fears were legit. I couldn't answer him because I didn't know what voltages they'd be running on the cables from the windfall to land and what kind of UG cable was planned, depth, etc. I'd appreciate your thoughts. Have you had any experience with windfarm transmission lines? Thanks!
Bzzzz. I like the look of the glass insulators, what’s the cord that they’re placed on made of?
Do you use ant thermal imagery when looking at a substation? Maybe it could help find heat issues before they develop further.
You were in Texas ?!
You must have thought you were in a furnace coming from Canada I passed through Texas in late June and I’m from Florida and I thought Texas was a furnace 🥵🥴😳
The sensation on my face when walking out of the hotel was literally the same as feel when I open the oven door in my kitchen! 😧
@@Bobsdecline We have that in inland California in July and August. Anything over 104 F. is like sticking your head in an oven.
I didn't know that there were privately owned substations of that size. To be precise that privately owned substation is probably fed at 34.5 KV, which is a standard local distribution voltage.
Heavy industries can have even larger private substations. Think about aluminium smelters, big data centers, and the like.
@@marco23p I can only imagine. What about truck stops for all those electric Tesla rigs?
@@jolyonwelsh9834 At least in the Netherlands, car charging stations get their own padmount transformer, but they are mostly connected to regular distribution voltage (here, 10 or 20 kV phase to phase). The total power is often 1-2 MW. They probably get a custom low voltage, because the car battery voltages nowadays can be up to 800V.
You should see the private substation Amazon has near their distribution center near me. It's hard to see across it. Has the longest bus lines I've ever seen.
large buildings have private substations as well, e.g. the office building I work at these days.
69KV = nice x 1000V 😆
Very thoughtful & sexually hilarious!!!
What size are the 69kV transmission lines, and how much current are they rated for ? I imagine in cold weather they self-heat enough to prevent ice buildup.
Aaron, thanks for the video. I have a question. Have you ever had a recloser fail in a way that it continually opens and closes, but doesn't lock out? I'm in Pennsylvania in the U. S. and I'm used to reclosers that try up to 3 times and then lock out. A few weeks ago at work, our power went out, but came back in maybe 5 seconds. It was on for maybe 5 seconds and went out again. But unlike what I'm used to, it kept cycling on and off for maybe 6 minutes! One of our electrical engineers said "thats not a recloser". I thought the same, but a couple days later, another employee said it was due to a traffic accident and other buildings in our area lost power too. Could it have been a defective recloser?
That's what happened in the western suburbs of Reading, PA. PPL territory. Never in all my life ever experienced that. On and off about every 5 or so seconds. Shut off power to the whole house after the first several. Fortunately, power was restored about 10 minutes or something later. Never did hear the cause. PPL while overall reliable is seemingly slipping in service. Not necessarily on equipment, but staffing levels.
@@ronbennett7885 That's really interesting. I'm hoping Aaron will reply. I didn't try to time the events, so my times may be significantly off. I really thought it was the switchgear in our building until I heard that a large store next to our building also lost power. I don't know how reclosers work internally, but I'm sure Aaron does. Like you, I was concerned about damage and unplugged my computer when I saw it was continuing. The other thing I noticed is that our lights didn't flicker or go dim. They went completely off, then completely on.
@ronbennett7885 I re-read your comment and looked up PPL service areas around Reading PA. Our office is next to Khols in Wyomissing and it looks like that's PPL. We have a mix of PPL and MetEd and I thought Wyomissing was MetEd, but apparently it's not. The incident we experienced was on Tuesday, Sept 10th around 5 PM.
That's actually normal... Kind of. Depending on the recloser settings, a fault could hit the "sweet spot". The fault current may not be high enough for immediate lock out with intervals far enough apart that it allows for the "3 shot" sequence to reset.
@@jaygosch8705 The boundary lines are odd. Some parts of Western Berks and Morgantown area are in PPL. Most of Berks is MetEd. From my interpretation of the outage maps, guessing a substation on or near Penn Ave somewhere between Wyomissing out towards Sinking Spring. Didn't see any news about accidents into powerlines. If it did, probably Wyomissing Borough or Spring Township. Both post police blotters. Might take a look later.
I wonder if this is similar to one they tore down here in Winnipeg? It's still mind blowing to me that these things can be decommissioned and torn down seemingly without any major interruptions, and why they eliminate them. I guess I'll continue watching the video lol.
PS. Still hoping to see more about open neutrals and any examples you have of them finding alternate paths back to the pole. I think I previously mentioned the call I had a month or two ago where the aerial coax was melted nearly the entire length, but I've since found out another tech went back for the same issue, but they also had the maintenance dept come out and change the tap as it might've been feeding voltage back towards the cx. I'm not sure I believe that cuz you'd think that all the drops off that tap would melt as well.
Anyway, sorry for the long post. Take care!
Center point in houston texas installed trip savers around my neighborhood after the last hurricane hit and had no power for 5 days only time will tell if they work.
Hey Aaron whats the cylindrical thing used for on the power transformer there??????
I think it's an expansion & storage tank for the transformer's cooling oil.
@@matthewwarren1789 to keep the maple syrup warm for the coffee
Is there a reason the fence is grounded?
Can you send more videos of the Milwaukee pipeline
👍👊‼️
Appreciate you an Milwaukee putting the US flag on the left side of the helmet. Those that know why will also be thankful.
Civilians should respect flag law and the flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever, to quote flag law. I used to wear a Federal uniform and a Federal badge and drive a government truck, but my uniform did not feature a flag patch. Flag lapel pins to be worn on the left side over the heart were the proper way according to 4 U.S. Code § 8 - Respect for flag.
Lightning arrestor, high impedance path?
I find myself staring at substations with much more idea of what's going on now. Especially transmission side (I've worked on 11kv distribution side before, all u/g though), but distribution and transmission are utterly different kettles of fish. Also I notice more details, like ground bonding etc etc
6:20 These 69 kV support insulators on the top of the pole look suspiciously short for 69 kV!
Privately owned, windmills and tapping into mains. Sounds like that privately owned is corporate owned and probably took a grant and is getting paid for their services as well. If I had my own substation then I'd be lighting a town up like in fallout.
I believe the intent here is that privately owned means not owned by their utility company, which means any work done is by an outside contractor. The fact that Aaron is doing the inspection is likely contractual to meet local safety standards and compatibility with the utility.
1:28 that is tiny!!
I find it unbelievable that some people are stupid enough to cut the fence to steal bond and ground straps. The buzzing noise should be warning enough.
These big voltage regulators on the distribution lines are weird to me. Anyone doing this kind of work in Europe here that could tell me if we have those?
I've never seen anything like it anywhere here in Norway. We have very long 22kV lines in many places.
bob can you talk about the difference between united staters power grid and canada power grid, any differences, is here sharing, of power between countries
@@Rocketcouchsleeper2024 the difference is Canada just got power a couple years ago so they are learning as they go
The Canada one has metric voltage ⚡️ 😂
Really, there isn't that much difference between the two - while the US has three types of electric distribution utilities (municipally owned, cooperative, and investor-owned), Canada's utility industry is pretty much one provider per province (Ontario Hydro, Manitoba Hydro, SaskPower, etc.). There are lines running between the two countries as Canada basically has a surplus of power generation, but those lines require special permits between the two countries. I know of two Canadian towns (Emerson, MB and North Portal, SK) that were once served from a distribution system on the other side of the border (Noyes, MN and Portal, ND respectively).
There are detail differences, like between any two company's rulebooks. And legacy differences in funding: I know Nova Scotia Power has been through phases not often seen in the US, but that's banking and politics, not really Power.
Mostly the two countries do similar things. Power crosses the border when that is best. Upper-right part of Maine US only gets power from a Canadian source cuz the woods and hills are rugged. Massachusetts just inked a deal to ferry Quebec juice non-stop through Maine to power Mass's electric cars and stoves.
MUCH power goes everywhichway borderless. Look-up (or remember) "blackout November 9, 1965". Overloaded 230KV lines in Ontario cascaded to New York lines pop pop pop pop. 30 Million customers in 8 states and 2 provinces left in the dark. Commuters walking(!) across the Brooklyn Bridge cuz the electric subways were out. That was so much fun, they did a similar blackout in 2003. Overloaded lines sagged, but dues to bug the fault was not reported. Other lines tried to carry the overload and they failed. More customers darkened (on both sides). Now we found that cellphone towers only go a few hour on battery. But we also saw the Milky Way in light-blighted cities which never see it.
@@nateroth1302😂
6900kv will turn you into a hotdog if you make a wrong move always make sure you get your gloves inspected every 6 months if I’m right
It's a large pile of m o v
Loose hardware
I'm 30 years old
I'm just joking. I am 13.
I'm sorry to blow up your phone
Can you send me some fees?
I didn't know how fast the sound of potential lethality would become so annoying. Everything in that place is literally reaching out trying to kill you.
Z E R O forgiveness.
The cause of the physical manifestation of the transformer's hum is pretty interesting. The hum represents wasted magnetic energy in the core. In and of itself, that isn't dangerous.