They don't have enough money to pay me to do high voltage electrician/line mans work! Nothing but respect for anyone that's willing to put their lives on the line for all of us, especially the local utility workers out in thunderstorms trying to work on HV power lines in a storm! Thanks to all of you electricians. You keep our homes warm & lit & we appreciate it/you!
@@Gael-kk3qp - I'm surprised that there wasn't a 'hook' around the guy as a safety precaution in case they had to pull him away. You only get one chance to 'get it right'.
i don't understand why this is so unnecessarily dangerous. why aren't the switches machine or robot operated? why are the switches so close to the energy? it makes no sense.
@@bjornegan6421 it’s just old equipment. State of the art is unmanned and remotely operated. Often stations are so compact today, you couldn’t even wander around in them like they do
The more you know the more you know how it can all go wrong in a big big hurry. I'm a mechanical engineer and I feel the same way. I had an internship in a steel and iron foundry as the metallurgist's assistant and when the 4" cables started to dance and swing on the induction furnaces after they were charged with 20 tons of fresh scrap, you knew that you were playing with a serious voltage.
@@epistte That dancing and swinging is probably due to magnetic interaction, and that directly means some serious currents. Though the voltage is probably also high to get high currents flowing.
FAQ for this video: *What are those suits they are wearing?* Those suits are AR (arc rated) material that would protect the workers from the highly destructive energy if a fault occurred while they were performing their switching. THESE SUITS ARE NOT FARADAY SUITS. *3000 KV? That's super high voltage!* This is not 3000 kV. This is a 3000 KVA (or 3 MVA) transformer. All transformers are rated in volt-amperes (VA!). VA is a capacity rating for a transformer, and could be compared to watts. That's the short explanation. Google true power vs. apparent power if you'd like to learn more about the difference between volt-amps and watts. *Why don't they close those switches remotely so they aren't in danger of being electrocuted or burned?* This could be an older facility, or the company just doesn't want to pay for automated equipment. That might sound crazy, comparing the value of someone's safety to the cost of remote operated actuators for disconnects, but it's the harsh reality. *What's that noise?* That noise is the transformer vibrating. Transformers rely on magnetic fields for their operation, and stray magnetic fields cause the transformer parts to hum in tune with the frequency of the electricity passing through the transformer.
I am the maintenance manager for a large factory and once a year during shutdown we do the annual maintenance to all our high voltage equipment. When we restart them, it sounds like the death star powering up to kill a planet. An awesome low pitch hum that you can feel in your chest.
Fish On TV It's a very rewarding career! The people in the video are industrial electricians. If you want to do something like this, you'll need an industrial electrician's license that only comes with 9000 hours of apprenticeship. This is not the only thing we do, however. We also repair and troubleshoot machinery, install new lines, program robotics, etc. The pay grade really depends on your skill/the danger level as the trades are more of a meritocracy. You're looking at $75k to $110k per year for a bigger company and about $50k to $80k for a smaller company. PS. I live in Canada so I'm only speaking from experience in Ontario.
Very similar in Alberta with Fort MacMerry Electricians, these kind of electricians are payed like engineers and doctors but they work very long hours when times are busy. That master electricians red seal ticket is worth more than some engineering PEng Degree.
No, the "levers" each control a separate source to the transformer. Each switch has 3 blades, one for each phase and are all operated at once to turn on the medium voltage input to the transformer. This is why these switches are referred to as "gang-operated medium voltage load interrupter switches". I actually worked for Square D (the manufacturer of this gear) and started up hundreds of these types of installations.
The day you put all of your trust into your fellowship. I like the only things he said. At 2:25 "Here it goes, God I hope.", 3:15 "Can you pull it out? No I'm fine. Keep me covered." and the best 4:01 "It's about time for a beer." I can tell the apprentice had no idea of arc flash.
Cool video. I don't think most people understand the repercussions of throwing those disconnects and having something go wrong. Notice how baggy those arc flash suits are? That's to house the giant balls these guys have. Nice work!
The suits are called Arc Flash suits and they made different levels of intensity for them. Against popular thought, their main purpose isn’t to insulate you from high voltage, they help with that but their main purpose is to protect you after the arc flash happens. 99% of the time if you’re hit by an arc flash you’re thrown across the room at high speed and you WILL be unconscious and there WILL be a fire engulfing the room. They are to protect you from the fire until rescue teams can help you.
@@teusinaerkin581simple answer the powers that be valuing profit over human life. Less space between substation and wall= cheaper production of factory and less land to buy.
you know good stuff is going to happen when the guys with the suits appear
Před 9 lety+81
DanielTseng100 They are going to release the bees from those boxes, that is why they need protective suits. You can hear the buzzing noise of those bees. Electricity? Bullshit!
+Dávid Molnár (Bice) That's funny! I've worked on and off as an electrician my whole adult life. Really bad things can happen when you power up those big transformers. I was temporarily blinded and received second degree burns from just 600 volts, when I dropped a pair of pliers in a live box. The pliers were in even worse shape!
+Eddie X I know the dangers of these stuff. Sometimes I work with high current transformers what are needed for the induction melting device so I am aware of the hazards. I just wanted to be funny. I hope you don't mind. :)
Ebenezer Kalarama They do, but those are typically more like chain-mail almost and act as Faraday cages. I believe these particular suits shown in the video offer more in the way of thermal protection for arc flash occurrences.
+Scot StClair You're right, those suits are for flash protection. They are wearing HV rubber gloves and glove protectors. I worked for a power company for 33 years.
@@BrightBlueJim wy woud they. The gear they wear protests against burns and liquid metal for quite some time. Most of the times it lasts long enough to get out. I don't know how they manufacture these suits in the US but at least here in Germany you can feel quite safe in them.
@@NinoJoel: because these are 40 cal suits, which means they protect the wearer from getting 2nd or 3rd degree burns from arc energy up to 40 calories per square cm. 40 calories per cm^2 does not kill instantly, so if there was enough arc flash to kill instantly, these suits would not be sufficient protection. Which means they would have 2nd or 3rd degree burns over most of their bodies, even WITH the suits. That's all.
Glad it worked out as planned, proper removal of Lock-Out Tag-out devices is key to restoring power to a 3000KVA Power Transformer. I have the same equipment in my Substations, but I never really felt comfortable with the H.V. Load Interrupter Disconnect Switches. But it is what it is and suiting up with the correct Cal Rated Flash Suit is a must when doing this type of work.
I like idea that the guys are wearing full PPE even with deadfront, metal clad switchgear. That's the right way to do it. Kudos fellows. Seen guys walk into 480v 4k amp rooms with nothing more than glove, no nomex! ! Side note, love that AC hum of intense amounts of energy flowing through equipment! Say safe brothers who keep the lights on!
Usually battery technicians wear the full suit only to disconnect to a lower potential like 120v on those 480v systems then wear their basic ppe after decreasing the risk.
There is indeed an expression for the reason of that "hum" coming off from transformers under load : "magnetostriction". And often, this gets louder if a transformer is on its "operating temperature" (or gets overheated in an unexpected situation of overload) when the lamination gets a bit more "loose" as the winding bodies expand in some way.
Yes, while I don't know about this installation, it is generally around 1-5kV. The "explosion" is called arc flash. When the switches are opened, an arc can jump the gap between the contacts; when this happens, the arc heats to around 30,000 to 40,000 degrees F, and due to thermal expansion of the plasma of the arc, and the air around it, a pressure wave is formed (the blast). The protective suits help absorb & reflect the heat and intense infrared from the arc.
Oh, yes! I can hear the difference between 50 and 60Hz. You can hear it is the arcs and hum of the the transformers. You are right. I grew up around linemen and distribution networks. My Dad worked for the local electric company, so the meter readers and linemen were my childhood companions. My favorite video of yours is the one of switching on two transformers at a substation. T2 really growls with the inrush current!! Music to my ears with that 50Hz roar. I know you are from New Zealand from your videos and I have several friends there. One on the South island and one of the North island. To have a response from you is a real honor! I love your videos that range from educational to destructive testing. I have been in electronics for 30 years and love seeing things from another country. Oh, the reason transformers hum is because the laminated covering of the windings. They allow for the vibration. =) You are awesome sir and keep putting out the videos!!
I’ve worked on everything from Cable TV, to 125,000 volt transmission lines. Currently work in the marine industry, powering up towboats, rebuilds, emergency on site repairs, etc. from 12vDC to 480vAC The latest death I know of was a 22yo welder. They say the machine malfunctioned, but either way he was electrocuted and killed by 208 volts. You don’t have to be an electrical worker to be in grave danger to electrical hazards at anytime.
Don't my mind grammar, please.....thrown two mains, energized the dual ended 12k ~ 480 transformer switch board line up . each section kirk keyed, through out process to get to energize 480 side, believe me exersizing the 12 KVA switch's in dry runs will put a hurtin on your back , needless to say after testing on the back side with meters every thing was great (that was the long time of nothing happening in end of video ), I digress . we put the conduit in, the wire and we tested it. and 3rd party test it. we got green light to turn it on. dam best rush i ever had because if that transformer blew i'd be vaporized , needless to say appreciate the great people who help and over seen this project to completion . I hear if a xfmr blow of this size nobody survives that arc fault that close,no matter what kind of flash suit ya use( and if ya noticed , i did have my zipper on suit up ,... the velcro just was not fastened right , a secondary closer, anyways, nice experience :) Happy to do it Thank you Delta Diversified Enterprises .Inc ,SQ. D ,Phoenix Children's Hospital for the great opportunity to partake in such great work !! C.E.S. \
@@johnkulpowich5260 Then the job doesn't get done. Next time your rental car dies at 0100 how much you pay your CEO or the night shift clerk is gonna matter more?
Most of the really bad incident energies that I see are on 500 KVA transformers at 208V, 3 Phase with a 2 % impedance. Did a project the other day where the incident energy was above 100 cal / cm^2 at 208V. The transformer secondaries are the worse coming off of utilities. It all depends on the clearing time of the upstream protection and the cleared fault threshold.
kVA's are not volts, they are the product of kilovolts x amperes x power factor. 3000kVA at unity (=1) power factor = 3000kW or 3mW. This is still a huge amount of energy to be around if things go wrong. To put things in perspective, 3mW equates to approximately 4,020hp. It's possible to have high kVA circuit ratings at relatively low voltages, there just needs to be lots of amps.
@@peterbritnell7579 If you want to start messing about units, at least get your letters right. mW = milliWatt, where I think you most likely mean MegaWatt (MW).
Back when I was a teenager, I remember adding a circuit to this old zinsco panel in the basement to run my computers. There was no main breaker, and didn't want to piss off the power company by removing the meter seal, so I worked on it live. Makes my spine tingle now I see you have to wear a damn space suit just to turn it on with the covers closed.
There are videos about zinsco breaker panels . Probably should have replaced the whole panel . Adding a breaker to modern 120/240 vac panels should be ok .
The 13800v systems I used to work on in shopping malls would have spring loaded breakers that are required to be wound up my gears before opening or closing them. They went off like shotguns. The speed of the switching process reduced arcing
This is really the "smoke test". Gear may be in start up phase now. This start up is called commishing. It is during the startup phase that engineers from switchgear company make sure the gear and it's protection systems are working correctly.
The first time you close up any high energy switch the adrenalin is pumping, doesn't matter how many checks how many tests, there's always the what if's. That's also the reason for the flash suits, to try and stop some of the molten copper and the Ultra Violet flash if something does go wrong, that's also a good reason for the video recording. So the next guys don't make the same mistake.
How ironic. I worked for Square D before it became part of Schneider Electric.I am familiar with this type of equipment. I also am very familiar with the low (600V and less) equipment they make and motor controls. Schneider is a big international co. that makes a lot of other stuff. These guys looked like they knew what they were doing with the arc flash protection thats required by N.E.C. NFPA 70 now. I worked as building engineer for 30 years too and did mostly electrical and HVAC work. Thx!
I worked in one building on campus for 20something years, and every time I had to go down into the basement to deal with a network or fiber issue in the HVAC room under the data center, I'd have to walk past one of those big panels. It housed the building disconnect and a pair of 5KV/440V transformers. Over the years the hum from those transformers just gets louder and louder. I swear one of these days one of those transformers is gonna vibrate so much it unbolts itself and walks sideways into the panel housing! :D
Good background for building eng. I had experience in power generation and 20 years as building eng. Clint Eastwood movie "Magnum Force" ... " A man has to know his limitations." Good advice.
Every time I did this procedure I was nervous ( shit scarred really ) in the early 70's we didn't have these suits. The air was filled with noise and energy strange feeling. Slowly changed over to remote operation which was so much safer. I spent 10 years doing this manually, my hearing is gone at certain frequency's. PPE was just being pushed in the early 70's retirement is great !!!
I worked for Con Edison in 1973 in Substation Maintanence. Back then we load switched the transformers manually. That was not my job. But as the new skinny kid. I was tasked to slide into the buss lockers with a plastic can of distilled water. To top off the emergency batteries for the load switches. Nothing like sliding past hissing bare busses and your skin getting pimples. As the senior guy says, "Watch out for that one, that's 300k." Just stick to the opposite wall and you'll be OK. Note: Those lockers were not wide enough to walk into straight anyway. (if you dared.)
Retired from a large hospital/research centers that had 17 13,200 volt switchgear & transformers. Larger research building required 50 CAL suites and everywhere else required 40 CAL suites for racking in 13,200 volt gear. Had a remote site that had garbage POS GE 13,200 volt dual service outdoor equipment. Genius GE engineers out did themselves on this . Not only had a CAL rating of 124 but they installed vents at eye level where you had to perform the switching. So in the event of an arc flash they would provide free instant cremation. Showed my inspector a picture of the 124 CAL Arch fault label. He told me he never saw such a high rating. Was told at continuing education classes that 60 CAL is the highest # suite they make. Told us even if you had a 60 CAL suite on the arch blast would blow you 20 feet across the room and blast will kill you. Of course this being GE Junk and I had trouble with every GE 13.2 KV switchgear that I had to switch or rack in. This particular garbage GE like other outdoor units that I switched had problems with humidity within 6 months of start up where they had to install heaters inside of gear to keep moisture level down.
I've been WAYY closer than I'd like to be to switch gear as it blows up, makes me REALLY glad I was wearing my suit! Even though it was way less juice than this.
They are called arc-flash suits and are used for thermal protection from burns in case of an arc-flash failure. It is a safety precaution. The suit rating is based in cal/cm2 and it determined by doing the arc-flash study. All of this is spelled out in the NFPA 70E. BTW, they are not the same faraday cage suits that are used on HV lines.
Fucking video! Ни бланков переключений, ни переносных плакатов, так работают настоящие профессионалы. В нашем РЖД всех задрочили инструкциями, посрать скоро по инструкции будут ходить, про энергетиков вообще молчу, там ни шагу без бумажки. Вроде загарница, а высоковольтные выключатели при такой мощности не применяют, до сих пор выключатели нагрузки - старый век. А за костюмы респект, вот тут заботятся о жизни!
If this is the same set up where I work the reason for having the second switch is your load, the first switch is just the main tie cell and you through that switch first so that there is no load once you energize the main bus.
I understand why electronic, remote control automation is expensive - but jesus christo - even a simple mechanical arm operated by a person say 3ft off to one side, would not be that pricey. All it takes is one good blast and its game over, even with suits on. The energy and the blast will kill you with blunt force trauma alone.
I worked on HV industrial motor starters... but never when the unit had power on it. We would watch the house union guys go through their whole grounding and bonding-out / lock-out procedure, even though the unit was designed to be safe to work on with the gear racked out and the shutters down over the HV stabs, isolating the HV... in theory. >_> We never relied on our own engineering for our lives, we made damn sure the power was off, off.
@@MarkMarconi Already have! I took a UK train, and it just sounded a little "off" to me, when I realized UK is 50 Hz. Honestly, I like the slightly lower rumble, better! 😊
Охренеть! Цирк с конями! 3 МВт всего! В ЗРУ! В клоунских костюмах! Я фидера на 6 КВ ВН-ом 400 А нагрузку принимал и не проблема. Дежурка каждый день такие нагрузки переключает и не чирикает!
Heh... reminded of a scene in one of the Star Wars flicks where Solo's up on the hull working on something, and hollers down to Chewie, "Ok, now try it!" Chewie flips a switch, and whatever Han was working on starts throwing sparks and smoke, and he starts screaming "NO! TurnItOffTurnItOffTurnItOff!!!"
i was a lineman and would help out sometimes at the substations with the transformers outside in an open yard. we didn't have any suits like that but they seem like a good idea.
Remember that a transformer is like an induction motor connected to an inductive generator but with no moving parts: there are still staggering physical forces involved!
I did that kind of work.for a period of 3 years after getting my electric license.and I deed wear thos suits.I have to admit just lessening the sound of those transformers is scary
Walrus102 well, considering gamma radiation is an electromagnetic wave, that means it consists of alternating electric and magnetic fields, therefore in a way it is still electricity
No, its to protect themselves from arc flash. Plasma gas that will readily burn you to a crisp. Those are basically fire suits like race car drivers wear.
No, usually there's no such mechanism. During the switching operation the contacts will produce an arc. That's why all switches have arc quenching medium or mechanisms, no matter which voltage. (LV features installations to cool down the arc, MV works in vacuum with field-controlled chambers, and HV works with directed flow of SF6 or air, depending on the type of switchgear)
They don't have enough money to pay me to do high voltage electrician/line mans work! Nothing but respect for anyone that's willing to put their lives on the line for all of us, especially the local utility workers out in thunderstorms trying to work on HV power lines in a storm! Thanks to all of you electricians. You keep our homes warm & lit & we appreciate it/you!
They don't have enough money for these guys either.
They just love there job.
Those aren't linemen. Those are inside wiremen.
Yeah both an arc flash suit you are usually likely to survive unless if it’s a really bad
@@Gael-kk3qp - I'm surprised that there wasn't a 'hook' around the guy as a safety precaution in case they had to pull him away. You only get one chance to 'get it right'.
This is just the new power supply needed for the Nvidia RTX 3090
🤣🤣
Still probably not enough
@@GoldRaven-oe4by yeah.. it lacks 90 kva.
😂😂😂😂
😂😂
A friend of mine, an electrician, told me once "If it growls, don't touch it. It bites."
Wise words
Well you can always tell a good electrician by the slots in his teeth... ;-)
He is right
@@beakytwitch7905 Peeling wires hahah
And if it doesn't growl, it can still bite. Is your friend still alive?🤔
I call my suit the “open casket” suit. Those suits make the difference between an open and closed casket funeral if something goes awry.
Both aren’t good for you either
I kinda figured it was the difference between a casket, and an urn.
i don't understand why this is so unnecessarily dangerous. why aren't the switches machine or robot operated? why are the switches so close to the energy? it makes no sense.
@@bjornegan6421 it’s just old equipment. State of the art is unmanned and remotely operated. Often stations are so compact today, you couldn’t even wander around in them like they do
It's a body bag so it's easy to find the pieces. I had. 13.8. Let go on me 5x.
The men that do this for a living are real hero's in my book. As an electrical engineer, I don't trust electricity that much....
Starting up new jobss are the worst
Put in tie breaker phase out of time. Standing in the dark. Did I do THAT
The more you know the more you know how it can all go wrong in a big big hurry. I'm a mechanical engineer and I feel the same way. I had an internship in a steel and iron foundry as the metallurgist's assistant and when the 4" cables started to dance and swing on the induction furnaces after they were charged with 20 tons of fresh scrap, you knew that you were playing with a serious voltage.
@@epistte I work for Farrel Foundry great job the 50 ton induction furnaces. 10 ton arc furnace. Being a electricain. You where allways busy.
@@epistte
That dancing and swinging is probably due to magnetic interaction, and that directly means some serious currents. Though the voltage is probably also high to get high currents flowing.
FAQ for this video:
*What are those suits they are wearing?*
Those suits are AR (arc rated) material that would protect the workers from the highly destructive energy if a fault occurred while they were performing their switching. THESE SUITS ARE NOT FARADAY SUITS.
*3000 KV? That's super high voltage!*
This is not 3000 kV. This is a 3000 KVA (or 3 MVA) transformer. All transformers are rated in volt-amperes (VA!). VA is a capacity rating for a transformer, and could be compared to watts. That's the short explanation. Google true power vs. apparent power if you'd like to learn more about the difference between volt-amps and watts.
*Why don't they close those switches remotely so they aren't in danger of being electrocuted or burned?*
This could be an older facility, or the company just doesn't want to pay for automated equipment. That might sound crazy, comparing the value of someone's safety to the cost of remote operated actuators for disconnects, but it's the harsh reality.
*What's that noise?*
That noise is the transformer vibrating. Transformers rely on magnetic fields for their operation, and stray magnetic fields cause the transformer parts to hum in tune with the frequency of the electricity passing through the transformer.
PERFECT explanations! Awesome! You said it about as good as anyone could, I think!
morbidangel47 so right
Perfect explanation!!! You know what you're talking about. ;-)
Thanks Captain, now you can fly away!
morbidangel47 So in other words these suits stop the body from splattering everywhere
I am the maintenance manager for a large factory and once a year during shutdown we do the annual maintenance to all our high voltage equipment. When we restart them, it sounds like the death star powering up to kill a planet. An awesome low pitch hum that you can feel in your chest.
I'm 81. Things have certainly changed (for the better) since I was a young utilities engineer doing startups.
I survived, although some didn't.
Not everywhere. There are videos of Indian folks doing this in khakis and a polo shirt.
Best feeling in the world is when you turn one of those things on/off and you realize you're still alive. I shit my pants every time.
This job looks like sitting on the edge of your seat kinda of job! Haha What does it take to get a job like this and what's the pay like?
Fish On TV
It's a very rewarding career! The people in the video are industrial electricians. If you want to do something like this, you'll need an industrial electrician's license that only comes with 9000 hours of apprenticeship.
This is not the only thing we do, however. We also repair and troubleshoot machinery, install new lines, program robotics, etc. The pay grade really depends on your skill/the danger level as the trades are more of a meritocracy. You're looking at $75k to $110k per year for a bigger company and about $50k to $80k for a smaller company.
PS. I live in Canada so I'm only speaking from experience in Ontario.
Very similar in Alberta with Fort MacMerry Electricians, these kind of electricians are payed like engineers and doctors but they work very long hours when times are busy. That master electricians red seal ticket is worth more than some engineering PEng Degree.
would that clothing even do anything against 3mil volts ?
VA is the unit of apparent power, not voltage.
Nothing in the world like feeling your entire body vibrate to 60Hz
oh yes: 50 hertz
@@l3p3 oh yeah 50hz is much better
Haha 1 HZ is far better oh you humans have no idea
me and the boys vibin to 60Hz:
50hz is knarly too. 400hz is quite peculiar too ⚡⚡⚡
No, the "levers" each control a separate source to the transformer. Each switch has 3 blades, one for each phase and are all operated at once to turn on the medium voltage input to the transformer. This is why these switches are referred to as "gang-operated medium voltage load interrupter switches". I actually worked for Square D (the manufacturer of this gear) and started up hundreds of these types of installations.
The day you put all of your trust into your fellowship. I like the only things he said. At 2:25 "Here it goes, God I hope.", 3:15 "Can you pull it out? No I'm fine. Keep me covered." and the best 4:01 "It's about time for a beer." I can tell the apprentice had no idea of arc flash.
Cool video. I don't think most people understand the repercussions of throwing those disconnects and having something go wrong. Notice how baggy those arc flash suits are? That's to house the giant balls these guys have. Nice work!
😅
The suits are called Arc Flash suits and they made different levels of intensity for them. Against popular thought, their main purpose isn’t to insulate you from high voltage, they help with that but their main purpose is to protect you after the arc flash happens. 99% of the time if you’re hit by an arc flash you’re thrown across the room at high speed and you WILL be unconscious and there WILL be a fire engulfing the room. They are to protect you from the fire until rescue teams can help you.
Which begs the question why there is not enough clearance infront of those substation
@@teusinaerkin581simple answer the powers that be valuing profit over human life. Less space between substation and wall= cheaper production of factory and less land to buy.
@@tclfan0180This is an evil world we live in
you know good stuff is going to happen when the guys with the suits appear
DanielTseng100 They are going to release the bees from those boxes, that is why they need protective suits. You can hear the buzzing noise of those bees. Electricity? Bullshit!
Dávid Molnár LOL
+Dávid Molnár (Bice) That's funny!
I've worked on and off as an electrician my whole adult life. Really bad things can happen when you power up those big transformers.
I was temporarily blinded and received second degree burns from just 600 volts, when I dropped a pair of pliers in a live box. The pliers were in even worse shape!
+Eddie X In-rush current can be scary
+Eddie X I know the dangers of these stuff. Sometimes I work with high current transformers what are needed for the induction melting device so I am aware of the hazards. I just wanted to be funny. I hope you don't mind. :)
Thanks for your service Electricians. The unsung heroes of the world.
They're not unsung. Their gear sings all the time, at 60Hz :D
@@mrz80 most of the world uses 50Hz mains so its more common for it to hum at 50Hz
It's good to see them wearing their PPE. Nice to see someone doing it right for a change.
+Scot StClair Don't KV-gard suits purposely envelope live-line workers in the 500kV fields?? these suits [in this video] seem unnecessary.
Ebenezer Kalarama They do, but those are typically more like chain-mail almost and act as Faraday cages. I believe these particular suits shown in the video offer more in the way of thermal protection for arc flash occurrences.
+Scot StClair Oooh, I see.... Thanks :)
+Ebenezer Kalarama You're welcome!
+Scot StClair You're right, those suits are for flash protection. They are wearing HV rubber gloves and glove protectors. I worked for a power company for 33 years.
You know an electrical device means business when you need a full arc flash suit to turn it on. Love the humming of big transformers. So soothing.
it is soothing, I can fall asleep during a MRI now
@@iraugie The grim reaper is humming
You only need the suit if it explodes
This is when Clark Griswold turns on his his Christmas display.
Goodo🤣
or Tim Allen on home improvement.
great to see workers wearing protective gear.
If somthing happend and they dont wear any safety gear they woud be dead instantly.
@@NinoJoel: and if they DID wear safety gear, they would be dead in several hours.
@@BrightBlueJim wy woud they.
The gear they wear protests against burns and liquid metal for quite some time.
Most of the times it lasts long enough to get out.
I don't know how they manufacture these suits in the US but at least here in Germany you can feel quite safe in them.
@@NinoJoel: because these are 40 cal suits, which means they protect the wearer from getting 2nd or 3rd degree burns from arc energy up to 40 calories per square cm. 40 calories per cm^2 does not kill instantly, so if there was enough arc flash to kill instantly, these suits would not be sufficient protection. Which means they would have 2nd or 3rd degree burns over most of their bodies, even WITH the suits. That's all.
BrightBlueJim holy F! Still burns that bad even WITH those special suits?! That's nuts!
Glad it worked out as planned, proper removal of Lock-Out Tag-out devices is key to restoring power to a 3000KVA Power Transformer. I have the same equipment in my Substations, but I never really felt comfortable with the H.V. Load Interrupter Disconnect Switches. But it is what it is and suiting up with the correct Cal Rated Flash Suit is a must when doing this type of work.
they look like bee keepers & those bees sound really angry
Rubus Roo funny but correct :)
They're pixies! Take a look at AvE's channel on CZcams if you need convincing.
Hahaha.
Peter Britnell
Very angry pixies
It stings. A little
I like idea that the guys are wearing full PPE even with deadfront, metal clad switchgear. That's the right way to do it. Kudos fellows. Seen guys walk into 480v 4k amp rooms with nothing more than glove, no nomex! ! Side note, love that AC hum of intense amounts of energy flowing through equipment! Say safe brothers who keep the lights on!
Usually battery technicians wear the full suit only to disconnect to a lower potential like 120v on those 480v systems then wear their basic ppe after decreasing the risk.
There is indeed an expression for the reason of that "hum" coming off from transformers under load : "magnetostriction". And often, this gets louder if a transformer is on its "operating temperature" (or gets overheated in an unexpected situation of overload) when the lamination gets a bit more "loose" as the winding bodies expand in some way.
this isn't reddit
Yes, while I don't know about this installation, it is generally around 1-5kV. The "explosion" is called arc flash. When the switches are opened, an arc can jump the gap between the contacts; when this happens, the arc heats to around 30,000 to 40,000 degrees F, and due to thermal expansion of the plasma of the arc, and the air around it, a pressure wave is formed (the blast). The protective suits help absorb & reflect the heat and intense infrared from the arc.
As well as vaporized metal.
Probably also lots of (unhealthy) UV radiation
@@Martinit0 yes. a metric fuckton of it.
Oh, yes! I can hear the difference between 50 and 60Hz. You can hear it is the arcs and hum of the the transformers. You are right. I grew up around linemen and distribution networks. My Dad worked for the local electric company, so the meter readers and linemen were my childhood companions. My favorite video of yours is the one of switching on two transformers at a substation. T2 really growls with the inrush current!! Music to my ears with that 50Hz roar. I know you are from New Zealand from your videos and I have several friends there. One on the South island and one of the North island. To have a response from you is a real honor! I love your videos that range from educational to destructive testing. I have been in electronics for 30 years and love seeing things from another country. Oh, the reason transformers hum is because the laminated covering of the windings. They allow for the vibration. =) You are awesome sir and keep putting out the videos!!
I’ve worked on everything from Cable TV, to 125,000 volt transmission lines. Currently work in the marine industry, powering up towboats, rebuilds, emergency on site repairs, etc. from 12vDC to 480vAC The latest death I know of was a 22yo welder. They say the machine malfunctioned, but either way he was electrocuted and killed by 208 volts. You don’t have to be an electrical worker to be in grave danger to electrical hazards at anytime.
Don't my mind grammar, please.....thrown two mains, energized the dual ended 12k ~ 480 transformer switch board line up . each section kirk keyed, through out process to get to energize 480 side, believe me exersizing the 12 KVA switch's in dry runs will put a hurtin on your back , needless to say after testing on the back side with meters every thing was great (that was the long time of nothing happening in end of video ), I digress . we put the conduit in, the wire and we tested it. and 3rd party test it. we got green light to turn it on. dam best rush i ever had because if that transformer blew i'd be vaporized , needless to say appreciate the great people who help and over seen this project to completion . I hear if a xfmr blow of this size nobody survives that arc fault that close,no matter what kind of flash suit ya use( and if ya noticed , i did have my zipper on suit up ,... the velcro just was not fastened right , a secondary closer, anyways, nice experience :) Happy to do it Thank you Delta Diversified Enterprises .Inc ,SQ. D ,Phoenix Children's Hospital for the great opportunity to partake in such great work !!
C.E.S.
\
Very good PPE must but being that close........
13 years ago ?
Why only one video ?
That should be enough for my Christmas display, thanks guys!
It's crazy that in the 21st century you still have guys flipping switches that might blow up in their face to get the power flowing.
I can't see electronics taking over that gig.
Notice the CEO isn't around when this stuff gets energized.
:))... so true.
He or she is probably on vacation sipping strawberry daiquiri or margaritas.
Out side of the room nobody should be in there
@@johnkulpowich5260 Then the job doesn't get done. Next time your rental car dies at 0100 how much you pay your CEO or the night shift clerk is gonna matter more?
@@jimmiller5600 I meant only people suited up should be in the room all others outside
3:19 just doing tasks in electrical
Grey is sus
😂😂... you're suspected 😂
I almost had a heart attack laughing at this comment
In Among Us
Arc flash suit - a must when working with that kind of voltage.
+Ryan M ahhhhh, different environment than the typical KV-Gard suit, when doing live-line work.
Most of the really bad incident energies that I see are on 500 KVA transformers at 208V, 3 Phase with a 2 % impedance. Did a project the other day where the incident energy was above 100 cal / cm^2 at 208V. The transformer secondaries are the worse coming off of utilities. It all depends on the clearing time of the upstream protection and the cleared fault threshold.
kVA's are not volts, they are the product of kilovolts x amperes x power factor. 3000kVA at unity (=1) power factor = 3000kW or 3mW. This is still a huge amount of energy to be around if things go wrong. To put things in perspective, 3mW equates to approximately 4,020hp. It's possible to have high kVA circuit ratings at relatively low voltages, there just needs to be lots of amps.
@@peterbritnell7579 If you want to start messing about units, at least get your letters right. mW = milliWatt, where I think you most likely mean MegaWatt (MW).
Back when I was a teenager, I remember adding a circuit to this old zinsco panel in the basement to run my computers. There was no main breaker, and didn't want to piss off the power company by removing the meter seal, so I worked on it live. Makes my spine tingle now I see you have to wear a damn space suit just to turn it on with the covers closed.
There are videos about zinsco breaker panels .
Probably should have replaced the whole panel .
Adding a breaker to modern 120/240 vac panels should be ok .
The sweet sound of Magnetic Flux.
is that a 4 phase i hear there??
+Darrell Roper Don't forget those cool eddy currents.... (named after the great research scientist 'eddy').
Life maga netic flux: raite
correct it: Gigawatts xd
That's called magnetostriction. Google it up.
My dads been doing this stuff and more since the early 80s. He actually still works at the same place. Tough stuff and glad nothing ever happened
MY brother wires those up and works on them. Iit took him an addtion two years of training on top of the 5 year apprenticeship.
The 13800v systems I used to work on in shopping malls would have spring loaded breakers that are required to be wound up my gears before opening or closing them. They went off like shotguns. The speed of the switching process reduced arcing
Throw in a tie breaker that was phase wrong. Done it
yikes
@@johnkulpowich5260
Em 2021 ainda tentando imaginar como é o funcionamento disso!! Belo video!
Aww the lack of description/explanation drives me nuts... :P
Because its probably a repost
Its always a good sign when you hit the switch and no loud bang follows :)
Believe it or not the bang is worse out side of the area. I know
Dude was like, oh yeah. Didn't get blown up today. It's a good day.
This is really the "smoke test". Gear may be in start up phase now. This start up is called commishing. It is during the startup phase that engineers from switchgear company make sure the gear and it's protection systems are working correctly.
Commissioning*.
Always wear your PPE correctly. It can save your life. There is a reason we have PPE. Someone died to earn us proper protection. Respect that.
That's some skookum looking suits. Those pixies sound angry af
keep your stick on the ice
This is just the power company turning on the juice to my new home theater setup.
made my day
Very dangerous juice
Just powering your beamer that beams the movie to the surface of the moon XD
Yep add to that the good old thx sound test ;)
I knew a guy who has 440/3ph power to his house to feed his home theater system. 7.1 with a 2000W monoblock feeding every channel.
I love that sound, I would fall asleep within minutes listening to.
I've been doing this for 50 years. When I started we did it in T-Shirts and Ball Caps. A whole lot safer now
So have I but I didn't get hurt then and I don't get hurt now, but everything takes four times longer.
The first time you close up any high energy switch the adrenalin is pumping, doesn't matter how many checks how many tests, there's always the what if's. That's also the reason for the flash suits, to try and stop some of the molten copper and the Ultra Violet flash if something does go wrong, that's also a good reason for the video recording. So the next guys don't make the same mistake.
Listen to those angry pixies!
MyNameIsMud pretty skookum suits to protect against all thy angry pixies. AVE for Prime Minister
You people are idiots, uncle bumble fuck has his language, come up with your own vernacular
That sound is raw power ! And that feeling is fear ! .
3 000 000 Volts
3 million!!!!!!!!!! Holy mother of bananas. That is beyond insane.
no, that's wrong. It's volts x amps. Could be 3000 volts x 1000 amps or 30,000V x 100A.
Dave, my mind is going, I can feel it...
How ironic. I worked for Square D before it became part of Schneider Electric.I am familiar with this type of equipment. I also am very familiar with the low (600V and less) equipment they make and motor controls. Schneider is a big international co. that makes a lot of other stuff. These guys looked like they knew what they were doing with the arc flash protection thats required by N.E.C. NFPA 70 now. I worked as building engineer for 30 years too and did mostly electrical and HVAC work. Thx!
I worked in one building on campus for 20something years, and every time I had to go down into the basement to deal with a network or fiber issue in the HVAC room under the data center, I'd have to walk past one of those big panels. It housed the building disconnect and a pair of 5KV/440V transformers. Over the years the hum from those transformers just gets louder and louder. I swear one of these days one of those transformers is gonna vibrate so much it unbolts itself and walks sideways into the panel housing! :D
Good background for building eng. I had experience in power generation and 20 years as building eng. Clint Eastwood movie "Magnum Force" ... " A man has to know his limitations." Good advice.
Every time I did this procedure I was nervous ( shit scarred really ) in the early 70's we didn't have these suits. The air was filled with noise and energy strange feeling. Slowly changed over to remote operation which was so much safer. I spent 10 years doing this manually, my hearing is gone at certain frequency's. PPE was just being pushed in the early 70's retirement is great !!!
I worked for Con Edison in 1973 in Substation Maintanence. Back then we load switched the transformers manually. That was not my job. But as the new skinny kid. I was tasked to slide into the buss lockers with a plastic can of distilled water. To top off the emergency batteries for the load switches. Nothing like sliding past hissing bare busses and your skin getting pimples. As the senior guy says, "Watch out for that one, that's 300k." Just stick to the opposite wall and you'll be OK. Note: Those lockers were not wide enough to walk into straight anyway. (if you dared.)
Retired from a large hospital/research centers that had 17 13,200 volt switchgear & transformers. Larger research building required 50 CAL suites and everywhere else required 40 CAL suites for racking in 13,200 volt gear. Had a remote site that had garbage POS GE 13,200 volt dual service outdoor equipment. Genius GE engineers out did themselves on this . Not only had a CAL rating of 124 but they installed vents at eye level where you had to perform the switching. So in the event of an arc flash they would provide free instant cremation. Showed my inspector a picture of the 124 CAL Arch fault label. He told me he never saw such a high rating. Was told at continuing education classes that 60 CAL is the highest # suite they make. Told us even if you had a 60 CAL suite on the arch blast would blow you 20 feet across the room and blast will kill you. Of course this being GE Junk and I had trouble with every GE 13.2 KV switchgear that I had to switch or rack in. This particular garbage GE like other outdoor units that I switched had problems with humidity within 6 months of start up where they had to install heaters inside of gear to keep moisture level down.
I thought GE was supposed to be the best because it’s the best known and most used (and LONGEST existing) transmission equipment. But I guess not… lol
@@EphemeralProductions To be so competetive they cut corners as all...
40 Cal/cm2 Arc Flash Suits, you are correct!
Radiation suits are for "Back to the Future"!!! ;)
I do remote isolations of high voltage substations at work, from the safety of my desk in a control room.
If the case has a window the blue green fireball a foot across is beautiful. 9 yrs of fun.
I've been WAYY closer than I'd like to be to switch gear as it blows up, makes me REALLY glad I was wearing my suit! Even though it was way less juice than this.
wow, you can really tell from their body language, how they move their hands etc how stressed out they are. lmao
They are called arc-flash suits and are used for thermal protection from burns in case of an arc-flash failure. It is a safety precaution. The suit rating is based in cal/cm2 and it determined by doing the arc-flash study. All of this is spelled out in the NFPA 70E. BTW, they are not the same faraday cage suits that are used on HV lines.
I'm from ten years in your future. No one asked you.
I am software developer and we are also using such suits when running program for a first time.
Fucking video! Ни бланков переключений, ни переносных плакатов, так работают настоящие профессионалы. В нашем РЖД всех задрочили инструкциями, посрать скоро по инструкции будут ходить, про энергетиков вообще молчу, там ни шагу без бумажки.
Вроде загарница, а высоковольтные выключатели при такой мощности не применяют, до сих пор выключатели нагрузки - старый век. А за костюмы респект, вот тут заботятся о жизни!
Not much DC saturation noise: The contacts must have closed just before zero crossing. Great sound, none the less!!
The guy is cool as a cucumber, does not jump when the door nudges him in the face at 00:55 - in that environment I’d have shat myself! 😂
I have that same flash suit. Hood, Pants and coat is arount $1200 bucks. One hot SOB in the summer!!
That's some real pretty transformer music right there!
If this is the same set up where I work the reason for having the second switch is your load, the first switch is just the main tie cell and you through that switch first so that there is no load once you energize the main bus.
I understand why electronic, remote control automation is expensive - but jesus christo - even a simple mechanical arm operated by a person say 3ft off to one side, would not be that pricey.
All it takes is one good blast and its game over, even with suits on. The energy and the blast will kill you with blunt force trauma alone.
I worked on HV industrial motor starters... but never when the unit had power on it. We would watch the house union guys go through their whole grounding and bonding-out / lock-out procedure, even though the unit was designed to be safe to work on with the gear racked out and the shutters down over the HV stabs, isolating the HV... in theory. >_> We never relied on our own engineering for our lives, we made damn sure the power was off, off.
Before anything else touches the equipment, you stick a voltmeter on the feeds to make good and darned sure there's no power.
When you throw that contact bar, hear that sweet 60 Hz hum, ans realize your still standing on this Earth ...
*bestdayever.mp3*
Come to europe, 50hz sounds sweeter ;)
@@MarkMarconi Already have! I took a UK train, and it just sounded a little "off" to me, when I realized UK is 50 Hz. Honestly, I like the slightly lower rumble, better! 😊
Я один ждал что бахнет?
Yes
Облом
Я тоже ждал
Я ТОЖЕ ЖДАЛ, ДАЖЕ ЗВУК ТИШЕ СДЕЛАЛ)))
Охренеть!
Цирк с конями!
3 МВт всего! В ЗРУ! В клоунских костюмах!
Я фидера на 6 КВ ВН-ом 400 А нагрузку принимал и не проблема.
Дежурка каждый день такие нагрузки переключает и не чирикает!
Sounds like my ex's vibrator starting up.
Has your new one got a quieter vibe?
DodgeCity111 why you pito no workky
3 speed with a Mercury 250 ?
+toilet brush You should order one and give us a review.
It's like when you trying to tune into a radio station and you notice it's on a.m
Nice job guys. Glad to see proper PPE!
That's what I loved racking in big breakers in July at work hoping they were rebuilt right and no arc flash.
He's a bee keeper AND an electrician? Crazy combo
👥"Swith it oooofff"
👤"I can't hear you"
Heh... reminded of a scene in one of the Star Wars flicks where Solo's up on the hull working on something, and hollers down to Chewie, "Ok, now try it!" Chewie flips a switch, and whatever Han was working on starts throwing sparks and smoke, and he starts screaming "NO! TurnItOffTurnItOffTurnItOff!!!"
i was a lineman and would help out sometimes at the substations with the transformers outside in an open yard. we didn't have any suits like that but they seem like a good idea.
Getting the power ready for EVERYONES ELECTRIC CARS LOL
Hot suit, every time. Unless you think bacon is a good look for a human.
Jonathan Dragon Mmmm, bacon.
Jonathan Dragon 2
3000 KVA transform but voltage rating not shown that more important to know
What ever the voltage is, it is too high for a human being. @@TheHugdude
Obviously this is in US, because the hum is clearly sounding at 60 Hz, not at 50.
+Germannio They also had American accents lol. I believe 60 Hz is used throughout the Americas.
Yep. But keep in mind, there's more places than the US that have 60 Hz electric frequency. :)
South America uses 60Hz too, including the biggest hydrelectric dam, Itaipu
Then you are tone deaf. This is 50Hz. I know the sound well.
It is 60Hz in the video. This is coming from a guy living in a 50Hz country.
The sound alone is enough to scare the crap our of me. Sounds like Frankenstein is coming to life.
Remember that a transformer is like an induction motor connected to an inductive generator but with no moving parts: there are still staggering physical forces involved!
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Nice to see protective uniforms, but I've seen more action in 8 minutes of sitting on the toilet. LOL
Thats actually my neighbors garage when he does Christmas lights
I did that kind of work.for a period of 3 years after getting my electric license.and I deed wear thos suits.I have to admit just lessening the sound of those transformers is scary
I'm a switchgear-designer from Russia, - it is interesting, to watch, how it works in other contries
the sound of it sounds scary.
+hotpapayasalad Because it is! That electric causing that noise is enough to vaporize those guys or anyone that comes into contact with it.....
tall32guy can't be good for your body either, must give you frikking migranes after working with it.
it can, especially high voltage, and the powerful magnetic fields, they used to dismiss claims it affected people, but they have now shown it does,
tall32guy vaporize? Lol i doubt it
Well I still enjoy watching this, after all this time lol ;)
Imagine what the INSIDE of that thing looks like! That would be SO COOL TO SEEEEEE
Прохвэссор: Опишите работу трансформатора.
Студент: Ууууууууууууу)
Electricity.... The meanest fucking thing alive on the face of the earth.
Alive?
FFEMTB08 I'd say gamma radiation is probably meaner.
Walrus102 well, considering gamma radiation is an electromagnetic wave, that means it consists of alternating electric and magnetic fields, therefore in a way it is still electricity
water is
It sounds like a light saber. No wonder they dress in space suits.
badlandskid ebxb
arc flash suits my friend!
That's to protect themselves from the intense EMF radiation
No its so if the contactors arc over and they are enveloped in a ball of plasma they aren't burned to death.
No, its to protect themselves from arc flash. Plasma gas that will readily burn you to a crisp. Those are basically fire suits like race car drivers wear.
Those harmonics make my hair stand on end.
No, usually there's no such mechanism. During the switching operation the contacts will produce an arc. That's why all switches have arc quenching medium or mechanisms, no matter which voltage. (LV features installations to cool down the arc, MV works in vacuum with field-controlled chambers, and HV works with directed flow of SF6 or air, depending on the type of switchgear)
Screwdrivers in a transformer room make me nervous as fuck
No kidding. I get nervous enough tightening up the battery terminals under my truck's hood.
Treddian As long as you don't touch both the terminals at the same time nothing will happen.
CT4P you can touch the terminals on a car battery all you want. 12v isnt enough for any cutrent to pass through your body
A relative told me about an accident at his place ABB High Voltage Products chewed up a screwdriver in this guys hand!
ahh the hum of electrcity
I know,,,,,,creepy !
witnesszer0 And it sounds different in places like Europe because the cycle is 10 hertz less.
witnesszer0 Do you know why a transformer hums?
It doesn't know the words.
magnetic fields and then Magnetostriction shakes so abrubtly that the iron in the cores stars to change shape a little
witnesszer0 That's no fun, I like my answer better.
That hum just sounds so dangerous ! ⚡⚡
Nice video. I work for a company that refurbushes PowerCon switches just like the PIF-A67-09 in that Cabinet he flicked on.