Detecting and avoiding preventable failures
BY JAY GARNETT, Doble Engineering Company
While metal clad switchgear can be very reliable, sometimes operating for over 50 years, throughout the aging process, this group of electrical disconnect switches, fuses and circuit breakers can experience issues such as moisture ingress, animal intrusion, enclosure rusting, and insulation deterioration. One efficient approach to detect incipient failures is partial discharge (PD), a leading indicator of various failure modes. Using both acoustic and...
Test lead management, including quality of connection and correct lead placement, is an important part of testing. Poor or incorrect connections can be the culprit for nonrepresentative results that ultimately lead to longer test times and, in some cases, wasteful investigations...
Determining mechanical condition of high-voltage circuit breakers BY JOZEF LEVI, Doble Engineering Company Life expectancy of a newly installed high-voltage circuit breaker is approximately 40 years. Throughout its life, under normal circuit conditions, the circuit breaker will operate less than...
Condition testing of circuit breaker’s arcing contacts BY BUDO MILOVIC, DV-Power The preventive maintenance on a high-voltage (HV) breaker consists of several routine tests. The timing and motion tests are methods used to assess the breaker’s mechanical condition. When the timing and motion...
In a significant move that underscores the growing demand for reliable and sustainable energy to power the expanding digital infrastructure, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved an interconnection agreement between Talen Energy, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Exelon. This...
A Smart substation digitizes protection and control, enabling utilities to detect faults faster, manage DER volatility, and reduce outage risk. The payoff depends on architecture, cybersecurity, and edge analytics, not just new relays. The shift toward smart substations is inseparable from broader...
In a significant move that underscores the growing demand for reliable and sustainable energy to power the expanding digital infrastructure, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved an interconnection agreement between Talen Energy, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Exelon. This...
In a significant move for Pennsylvania’s energy sector, State Senator Gene Yaw has introduced a transformative piece of legislation aimed at modernizing the state's approach to power plant development and capacity management. The bill, which has been the subject of considerable discussion,...
Test lead management, including quality of connection and correct lead placement, is an important part of testing. Poor or incorrect connections can be the culprit for nonrepresentative results that ultimately lead to longer test times and, in some cases, wasteful investigations...
In today’s society we are faced with many obstacles, one of these obstacles is the high cost of electricity around the world. Electricity prices for commercial, industrial and institutional have increased a considerable amount. There are many reasons why this is occurring,...
Detecting and avoiding preventable failures BY JAY GARNETT, Doble Engineering Company While metal clad switchgear can be very reliable, sometimes operating for over 50 years, throughout the aging process, this group of electrical disconnect switches, fuses and circuit breakers can experience...
