345 kV Substation Interlocks - Protecting Substation Equipment and YOU 

Really like how you explain the parts names and what they do! Such as corona ring. More videos please. Would be interesting to see you explain reactor banks and capacitors.

5:58 LPL...Little click out of 5...3 is binding....nice click out of 1

The length and level of explanation is perfect. You’ve got a knack for this

As a transmission system operator currently in training these videos are awesome. Due to covid they arent letting me into the field. Surge impedance loading (SIL) is the concept of when and why transmission lines will act either capacitive or reactive. During light loading, the lines will produce MVars, and during high loading they consume MVars. Managing system voltage using capacitor banks and reactor banks is something we do constantly in my control room.

Thanks for the video. One the reasons you want to ground the capacitors is dielectric hystersis. Charge will reappear due charge stored in the dielectric.

I'm retired. The electrical industry was a great field to be in you do miss it. Thanks for showing what we do

Morning, Some of us appreciate exactly what u do.

Good work. Don't be distracted by production values - it's what's coming from yer brain that matters and the content is focused and relevant to each episode. Disclaimer, I've only watched 3. So far.

Thank you for putting together this video. I'm totally fascinated by infrastructure--and am an infrastructure tourist. When I was 5, I lived in New Jersey. My parents gave me a book on New York City infrastructure... and begged my parents to take me to the places listed in the book. Decades later, I'm still fascinated by infrastructure and am still an infrastructure tourist. This is exactly the sort of video I love, the sort I watch time and time again.

Have been in the commercial electrical/electronics field for over 50 years and have always had an interest in high voltage transmission lines and substations, but have never worked on them. Your videos are fantastic in instruction and understanding their workings. I have often seen the rings (corona rings) on high voltage lines and now I know there purpose. When I was a teenage there were high voltage towers that ran over a large reservoir near our house. You could hear and see the corona discharge on humid summer nights, very strange to hear and watch. Keep sharing and Thanks.

Thank you a lot for putting out these great videos, I just found your channel recently and I thoroughly enjoy watching and learning from you. I work as an electronics engineer in MEMS (micro-electro-motoric-systems) development, so this is the polar opposite end of the spectrum of what electrical engineering is used for..

For an EE major this is super-interesting, thank you and please keep on posting this type of content! Regards from the UK.

It’s really sorta neat the see the hairy, scary, grown up versions of what we see on a circuit board.

I’m glad guys like you share your knowledge and experience. I’ve learned so much over the years just watching RU-vid videos like yours. Thanks for sharing

Watched all 3 of your videos. Excellent for sure. The information you presented is simple enough for most folks and you didn’t launch into formulas and technospeak. I appreciate it. Thanks.

@10:30 looks like someone forgot to tighten down the second u-bolt really enjoy the content, keep it coming!!

That interlock is just like the railway semaphores from them 1800s. Flawless.

I've worked on a few windfarms in the Midwest and up in Maine on the comms side so I spend all of my time in the control house and O&M buildings but I was always curious about how each component in the substation works together. Your videos have answered those questions ive had. Thank you!!!

Always awesome to see the products that I build every day in use! Seeing how the cap bank works with the rest of the substation is really cool! Thanks for this video.

This is awesome... subscribed! These places look terrifying to a newbie but the more you know the more you see how well engineered protection and safety is.

Very Well Detailed..Thanks for sharing..

i'm a software engineer and i absolutely love interlock systems. i typically design the systems i build opposite most people - i put a lot of trips in them so that if conditions are outside of the expected parameters they fail. it's more difficult to build up front, but i think the payoff is well worth it when something goes wrong and rather than continuing to run it shuts off.

Your job is extremely cool! I’m pretty jealous not gonna lie!

Thanks for this, the format and content of your videos are fantastic - thanks for sharing with us.

That seems like a pretty smart mechanism

This is really a cool video! It is great to see some of the safety features and the reasoning behind it.

Thank you, this is very interesting. You hear a lot of bad stuff about US power grid, but this site looks like it's very very well engineered and maintained. Subscribed!

Your HV / substation video's are great. Nice pace, nice level of detail, very genuine. Thanks for taking the time to do it, they're very interesting. Keep them coming!

Outstanding information, explanation, and video quality. 👍

Another amazing video! Thanks so much

This is awesome, and I love that it’s in 4K quality

thanks for all informations u are giving us! please keep doing this!

Great video! I wish I had these when I was taking my NICET exams. I did primarily data center work, substations were scary black boxes to me. Keep up the good work!

Enormous Conservators. Gorgeous transformers and station.

That was really interesting to watch, even though I'm not connected with electrical work in any way (if you'll pardon the pun). I always wondered what those rings were for and now I know. Great video.

A few hundred houses down the road's lights are going on, off, on, off during these demos :D

Very interesting, specifically the reactors to deal with the Ferranti effect

Loving these vids, I can now have substation chat with my mate whos a line mechanic.

Thank you for these videos.

cool stuff ! keep' em coming!

Incredible videos. I work for a utility company in Zambia. I would love to come out there and appreciate different systems

Great video!

Fascinating .. thank you !

Finally, someone give me a name for those corona ring ! Thank you so much ! One question: when you walk under the high voltage powered lines, do you wear a protective outfit ? Do you feel and are you exposed to a dangerous electrical field ?

Love the videos!

Nice vid! I'm not in the power industry but enjoy this stuff anyway. Subbed mate

I take it that your substation was still under construction (de-energized) while you were demonstrating the capacitor bank kirk interlock. I personally tested a new capacitor bank (start to finish) for a 115Kv substation. Provided about 43 megavars to the system.

15:05 "Corona"? Oh no, that's the forbidden word lol

Submarine line terminals also have some neat interlocks going on. They supply power for the repeaters/amplifiers at the bottom of the ocean, can be thousands of volts (DC IIRC), so you don't want to be sticking your hands into something that could burn them off. There's usually a sequence of operations that must be performed in order to release keys that then allow the next set of operations to be performed, eventually leading to a safe system to work on Sometimes there's even operations that require two keys to be turned, so you need a second person and they are spaced far enough apart that one person cannot physically do it themselves.

Cool ABB stuff.

Very interesting. Some good engineering there. When you say primitive on the interlocks, I think maybe that is a good thing. You can at least see how it works not so much with software. Near where I live there is a transition from overhead cables on towers to underground cables. I think it is 132kv and it is quite loud more so when it has been raining. Nice video look forward to the next one :)

Thank you so much, way cool!!

I wouldn't call mechanical interlocks as _"primitive",_ but rather a worthwhile and necessary feature based on human fallibility. Idiot proofing is always advantageous. Thanks for sharing. 😉👌🏼

Looks like the bottom clamp is finger tight at 10:34, great insight into yard stock.

Far out man. Good vid.

Hey @SpeedFreakLS1. I believe the rings on the arrestors that are underhung on the deadend structure you called corona rings are actually Grading rings to ensure a uniform voltage across the arrestors. A lot of people call those corona rings but typically when they are on an arrestor their function is typically to act as a grading ring. Keep up the great videos though, there are a few people in our office that are really enjoying them!!!!

Grate input of info ,corona is not good causes corrosion, thanx for vid very interesting

The 3rd interlock is like the lineman's version of an escape room

Really cool mechanical interlock, do you know who makes it? Was that the switch manufacture or someone else? Much better then Kirk Keys for an instance like that, basically fool proof. Clean looking yard and control room. Enjoying the videos, makes me really miss substation work. Work safe.

At the dead end, you walked under the cables that sounds “life” isn’t that dangerous towalk under there. You hear scary things of people in substations. Btw aaaa that hum in de background lovely.

I am really enjoying this series - is there any device you can use to see the corona (except total darkness I suppose)

Informative

Hey you are awesome! I hope these are fetched for teaching in the University, instead of boring presentations; complementary at least. Isn't scary to you that sound being so close?

The corona shielding is interesting. Does the corona effect cause much in the way of RF interference with the instrumentation? Edit: I love a physical interlock, primitive or otherwise. I trust them over a software interlock any day.

sometimes capacitor banks have timed kirk keys that have a mechanical timing actuator before it releases the key, so you dont just ground the capacitor straight away.

As a suggestion, when pointing out specific items in your vids try pointing with finger, pencil or pen to the item on the screen. Might help us non-elects with the info.

I love this type of info. Get a ded cat for your mic!

I love these videos. I want to work in this industry so bad. What happened with the 345kv high-temp transformer you showed last week?

heck i'd love to see a 345KV arc sometime. I know it's not good for the sub though, just cool to look at : )

👍.

Great vid! What happened to your other vids of the transformers? (The walk-around, nameplate explanation, and the start up vids)

Gret Video. Was curious is that nitrogen tank next to the transformer? Seen these transformer look like they have a conservator tank.

Any suggestions? A few months ago a new remotely controlled pole top switch was installed on the next street. It's on a 34.5Kv primary. Ever since then AM radio reception in this area is nothing but static. I called the power company to no avail. Even when I drive my car under that line the radio reception is blocked. What can I do to get that problem corrected? Thanks.

I can't find any info on this, but I've been curious: Why are some wires run in pairs for (what I assume is) the same voltage & phase (Say at 16:20, to the right of the poles)? I'm thinking something with surface area, but I'm very unsure about it...

Given the high voltage, how much does heavy fog or haevy mist affect things?

I know I'm late, but what about the loose pipe clamp at 10:40 second clamp down on the right. With it being part of an interlock I would think tight would be better.

When you say 'reactor', is that an inductor (coil) ?

I’ve worked with SCADA interlocks and Kirk key interlocks. When these systems work as intended they save equipment and lives.

If the corona thing is so close to you would it be possible for it to jump an arc through your camera and bad things happen?

Do you get exposed to a substantial amount of ozone during the course of your typical day, and is there an OSHA limit on that cumulative exposure?

@9:42 Am I correct in thinking that the interlock arm is secured to the shaft by the friction of the clamp?? I have seen clamps loose their original tension over time and in this case I wonder if this has been considered. This would apply to the breaker interlock on the opposite shaft.

Morning SpeedFreak, I love this channel, what you do, and how you do it, That's the future of work I want to do. What's your official title and what did you get at school? I am currently a lost university student studying electrical engineering and am trying to find a place in power systems, any advice?

You said this for a wind farm Where is the synchronizing done so this can be tied with the grid?

I know Aluminum is cheap , just thinking that for the AAC you could go ACC, (copper), and get some better longevity out of the conduit expansion joints, or Did I miss something ....??

Does the substation have any kind of lightening protection?

I have often noticed the sizzling, but had never heard about the Corona shields on sharp edges and bolts before, I find that fascinating. When I hear an extra noisy pole, I just always assumed it was tracking over the insulator or something, but I guess it could just mean it has a sharp edge. What's the minimum voltage that this is an issue with?

15:00 So that's where it came from! We need to tell the Chinese right now!

Are those "reactors" just regular induction coils or do they have some other magic shit going on?

is it 60hz ac from the windfarm?

Have you ever heard of power line RFI causing interference on microwave bands?

The wind is tearing up the sound, but I see no blades spinning. Ron W4BIN

A key - can't go wrong with that because its a physical object you have to physically carry with you. Can you imagine the result closing the circuit while its still grounded?

Putty cool

hey Speed, kinda off topic, but, what are those huge cylindrical things @ 4:19 in the back view there, just off the right side of the building. also right behind the capacitor bank @ 5:32. ive seen those things everywhere and cannot find a reference to their function? actually, nevermind, i posted this mid video, and you covered them. Shunt Reactors. thanks for that answer :)

Even with all the interlocks, it still relies on the operator making the decision that it is cool to activate the system. If the operator is wrong for whatever reason, disaster can still strike. I've watched a guy go through a set of questions in a software system that are there to prevent erasing critical system info, and answer them all appropriately because his internal model of what was happening was wrong. The files got erased, and we were in deep doo-doo. A guy could be working on the cap bank, while the other guy thinks he's not, and could go through the whole rigamarole of ungrounding the caps, taking the key over to the other panel, and then activating the system. But it is a lot better than not having them. Moral is, think hard about what you are doing, and check your assumptions!

Is it possible to have an automatic transfer switch with 3 power inputs?

What is your job title if you don’t mind me asking

A+ love the video and the technology but on number 4 interlock on the right side discount , 2ed u bolt look litte lose J's

This place exellent for Bitcoin Mining

Why are dry core reactors so common in the US? Here they are almost always the oil filled ones that look like a transformer. They are also usually variable.