5 Myths about Power Outages

hey everybody Aaron here I've been alignment on the east coast of Canada for about 15 years now today I have a video for you where I talk about five common misconceptions about power outages I would also like to mention that in all of my videos the images you will see are original and from jobs that I have been directly involved in so let's get started with five myths about power outages number five we know when your power goes out now before I get started on this one I would like to mention that if one of the transmission lines go out then yes our system operators will be notified immediately also the amount of load or current on our transmission lines is monitored very closely a sudden spike in current may indicate a fault and a sudden drop may indicate loss of a substation or a feeder in cases of these large-scale Etheridge's relays and various alarms will notify the proper authorities and I can assure you response is quick behind the scenes several people have already begun the troubleshooting process as well as crews that are quickly being dispatched it's safe to say that if the outage affects lines all the way back to the substation chances are we are aware even if it's a smaller sub that's not equipped with all the fancy relays and alarms local businesses and homes where electricity may be more of a priority are pretty quick to call for more common outages and which very few customers are affected the only way for us to know is if you or one of your neighbors are called all too often I hear especially for those of you that live in extremely rural areas it's always best to call or we might never show up number four we know exactly where the problem is actually unless we get a call indicating a specific problem we pretty much gotta go looking for it another line I often hear from customers as I stroll through their back yards during my patrols behind the scenes our dispatchers will gather some information mostly geographic location of each phone call to help better direct us into the area once we determine which line is open or find a blown fuse the only way to proceed is to walk or drive the entire length of the line this could mean hours of walking through snow in backyards around fences and through the woods another guiding factor as we search for the cause of the outage is the type of weather for example if it's misting out or heavy fog we may focus more in searching for cracked or broken insulators during extreme cold we may have to open some transformers to reduce load on the line before attempting to re-energize it when it's really windy out we may tend to pay less attention to all those things while simply looking for a tree that has fallen over on the line it can sometimes be difficult to find the problem when the cause doesn't follow a typical trend number three wires laying on the ground or dead no don't ever assume that even a properly trained lineman will not touch down power lines and if they are properly grounded even if the line is tripped out it is possible to receive a lethal shock from the induction back feed or simply align holding his charge in this clip the lines you see blowing in the wind are not energized yet if you look closely you can actually see arcing from the induction off one phase grounding out onto the other that has been damaged you must also be aware that even if a line does trip our system can automatically reenergize it at any given time without warning until it is properly disconnected by a lineman or a certified technician yeah that's a transformer through that guys roof sometimes a power line may lay on the ground and not draw enough load to trip out it will just lie there and burn depending on the train it's on the ground may simply not be conductive enough this is often the case when lying on ice or snow if ever you are trapped in some way by down power lines be it in your vehicle or in your home the only time you should ever make an attempt to leave is when your life is an immediate danger never allow anyone else to approach in an attempt to assist you as they will only put their own lives at risk there is a specific method and how to do this safely which I will not be covering in this video number two underground power lines are better truthfully it depends on location in the city absolutely and rural areas not so much one of the biggest issues is cost not for just the cable or the equipment but also maintenance and personnel dedicated solely to locating the Buried lines for local contractors before a shovel even hits the ground you must contact your local utility for clearance to dig around buried cables buried cables are also much more difficult to access and oftentimes lying dark humid areas without ever getting a chance to dry off the connections will corrode easily and water will often seep into the ductwork connectors or even into the cables themselves in cold weather that water may begin to freeze and expand causing extensive damage to the cables there are however several control measures put into place to help prevent these types of damages but when outages do occur it can take much longer to find and make repairs to our equipment underground cables are also extremely heavy and awkward to work with compared to overhead lines there is also flooding ductwork and high-voltage switching vaults make for the perfect transit system when water has nowhere to go at which point we may have to de-energize an entire system for safety reasons underground lines also pose a hazard to construction crews and local city workers here you see a local contractor using a steel i-beam to help suspend a concrete duct bank containing 7200 volt cables as they dig below it in a rural area one might think an underground line would be efficient at reducing outages caused by high winds and trees which it would but again is just not practical with no sewage system in place the cables would have to be buried deep enough to cross blow any culverts or ditches and with miles and miles of empty land whenever somebody decided they wanted to build a home in order to supply it with power we would have to excavate the cable in order to splice in a pad mount transformer at each and every location such work can also not be performed while the cables energized unlike working on overhead conductors in a more densely populated air this process would have already been completed as the system was put into place that way houses can tap onto the Transformers as they are built I've touched only briefly on the pros and cons of underground power lines and when applied correctly they are great but for some it simply does not make any sense number one my transformer just blew up one of the most common complaints we receive from the public during a power outage is when in actuality this is really the case you see virtually every transformer that is on the line is protected by a fuse be it a pole-mounted transformer a pad mounted transformer or a power transformer and a substation when these fuses blow it could be extremely loud and is often affected by bright flash and various colors that can be seen for miles sometimes when these fuses blow things don't go exactly as planned in this clip what you see is one of those fuses except instead of protecting transformer is protecting the line itself typically a transformer is fused from 3 to 20 amps on a 7200 volt system this particular one is 200 amp what does that mean well it means that it takes over 1 million four hundred and forty thousand watts to blow this fuse or one and a half megawatts this ball of fire you see now is essentially a visual interpretation of how much power it takes to turn on twenty four thousand lightbulbs two minutes before this video was taken I was approximately 12 feet away from that ball of fire as I was returning service to the lines the cause of the fault was actually a faulty switch in which the fuse did not make proper contact as soon as the arc started I quickly lowered myself to the ground got into a safe position and phoned the dispatcher to advise him that the substation was probably going to trip I also made sure to keep the area clear of any curious onlookers until eventually the arc just burned itself out luckily it didn't cross phase and of course over the next few minutes I received several reports that a transformer had blown up in the area transformers are extremely heavy this particular one weighing approximately 1,100 pounds they are filled with copper windings in an environmentally safe mineral oil to help keep those windings cool the oil transfers heat from the windings to the exterior of the can at which point it will naturally cool by surrounding air if the oil becomes contaminated by moisture or other means it will lose its insulating properties and cause internal arcing resulting excessive heat gas pressure and very high current the protective fuse will then quickly blow in order to protect the transformer from catastrophic failure when the fuse blows it is extremely loud and often compared to a gunshot or an explosion at this point our system is behaved exactly as it should have the fuse isolated the transformer before it could blow although it will have to be replaced aside from bad oil there are many other scenarios which can cause an internal transformer fault most often times when the fuses blow it is caused by an external fault such as animals crawling around where maybe they shouldn't be when these faults occur outside the transformer we simply need to replace the fuse and the transformer is left unharmed there is however still a procedure to this and a few tests we have to do before we can simply close it back in so the next time you hear a loud bang and your power goes out you can safely assume it was simply a fuse if the whole area is out it's most likely a Fault in the line a tree branch perhaps a lightning strike may be a bad insulator if it is affecting only a few houses maybe a squirrel crawled up on top of your transformer or if on the rare occasion that the transformer did go bad we can all be thankful that it didn't blow that being said no system is perfect I've encountered personally four situations in which a transformer did actually blow up it can be very devastating thankfully it doesn't happen very often thanks again for watching my video please like this video and please subscribe and you'll be the first to see my new and upcoming videos on how we get power from our lines to your home

Channel: Bobsdecline - Lineman blogger

Views: 209,557

Rating: 4.9150887 out of 5

Keywords: 5 myths, powerline myths, power line myths, all about power lines, lineman, what does a lineman do, power outages, life on the line, canadian linesman, powerlines, arcing, transformers, lineman power lines, power lines lineman

Id: v9DCq8JnbIQ

Length: 11min 12sec (672 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 07 2018