Actually, these are all isolator switches opening and closing. They are not made to stop current. I'm not sure about other countries, but in NL there's always a combination of a HV circuit breaker, which stops the current in about 20 ms, and one or more isolator switches like the ones in the video. Using the circuit breaker to open and close the circuit prevents big arcs like this.
I've always been fascinated with transformer hum, lightning, electric motor start ups, arcs, etc. Something about electricity just seems eerie and cool.
Fuuuuck yeah man electricity is just this weird energy moving around and it can straight up cook you and it does all this flashy wierd shit but we use it to have AC and cook hotpockets but it can easily fucking kill you
0:29 I'm glad that I can watch this with my phone and don't have to be there in person. Even though it's fascinating I would probably panic if this was this close to me. I'm studying this for 6 years now and the amount of respect I have for those extreme cases is immeasurable
@@DrAdityaa well basically they are simple switches, on and off. However, instead of turning a light bulb on, these switches are used to connect and disconnect power plants (like hydroelectric power plants) from the whole grid (where the electricity is transferred from power plants, sometimes over far distances to your home). These switches are used to switch on and off without a load=>meaning there is no electricity generated or consumed that is being put in or pulled out of the grid. If they for some reason are opened during the flow of electricity in or out of the grid, you get this massive arcs that sound incredibly mean (50/60 (or to be correct 100/120) Hz humm). If no load is flowing through these switches when they're opened, they'll still arc but much much weaker. Having said that you are by no means in any danger if your standing that "close". However I really value my life and I honestly do not want to get close to them even if it's save to do so (again I know what I'm talking about and therefore dealing with it accordingly) Hope this helps, if you didn't understand something please tell me ;) Edit: 0:31 switching with electric load 1:13 switching without a load
What's scarier than the arcing is the fact it's a disconnect switch arcing. Like, imagine it's an emergency and for some reason it just doesn't stop arcing.
Those are air-disconnectors, not switches that open in fault-situations and certainly not designed to open while loaded. Switches that disconnect when a fault occurs are either powered by compressed gas (where the gas usually also serves as an arc-quenching medium) or coiled springs, that make sure the contacts are separated within in instant. Besides a gas of some sort, oil is another common arc-quenching medium.
@@weeardguy Yeah I'm really not sure why they are opening these disconnects while under load. In my experience you would always open an upstream circuit breaker before opening up a downstream disconnect like these. I wonder if these were being performed for tests or something.
@@weberneting Well not all of them in this video are under load. Most of them show 'static' from line capacitance or a parallel running powerline. Besides showing off (I wouldn't be too surprised if some linemen like to open these under load on purpose, even though that is dangerous) it's also a thing with procedures and maybe even thinking an upstream circuit breaker has been opened, which you quickly find out isn't as soon as you open 'your' airbreaker.
@@barrett2724 Frenchman Hippolyte Pixii (odd name) built the first alternator on Faraday's principles. Then there was a barrage of hungarian, french and american pioneers. Tesla played a part but is given too much credit.
@@barrett2724 Hypolyte Pixii (weird name) built the first alternator on Faraday's principles. Then came a slew of French, Hungarian, British and American pioneers. Tesla did his part, but was caught up in the fame of the 'Current wars' and too much is attributed to him.
I honestly have recurring nightmares about somehow getting too close to these high voltage transmission lines when they're down, by the ground, in a substation, or fallen, getting killed by the immense power they carry. Respect to all the people that get to work with these, and stay alive while doing so.
The probability of this happening is slim to none, but if you ever end up with a power line having fallen on your car while you're in it, don't get out of the car. Stay inside and call emergency services, then wait and do not under any circumstances touch the ground, provided it is safe for you to follow these instructions :)
I'm a big enthusiast for electricity and currently have a playlist of over 800 of these. The phenomenon going on here is the energized section of the busbar leading to the disconnector/ isolator. When the two contacts/electrodes come in close proximity, the static then jumps to the other bus with so much force, causing the arc. I tried to explain it simply.
@@GiovannaNogueira12 To isolate the energized current flowing into a bus side. This is so a side of the substation can be de-energized for maintenance and work on power lines safely.
Cool! I wondered about that. Does someone need to hit a switch to start the process, or do the "arms" start moving on their own when this situation arises? You can tell electricity is definitely not my forte.😊
I love how you can tell which grid frequencies each country is running by the sound its arcs make! :-D 1:35 clearly still had some significant load on it when opened!
Not a capacitive discharge; that's a flowing current discharge. How can one tell? It wasn't over in a fraction of a second. ("Capacitive" would indicate a charge stored electrostatically).
I used to do this exact task when before I retired from a coal fired generation station in Central Illinois. Some of our disconnects were motor operated while others were manual. Sometimes, we had to open the " ring" with backfeed. We were required to wear high cal ppe while being in the switching yard. The output voltage leaving my station was 372 kv. The arc was pretty spectacular at nighttime.
mmmm.... these seem far to slow to operate and break or make connection, some even don't break the Jacob's ladder arc when fully open, poorly made equipment for open air breakers. They need to be a greater distance apart air gap for sure.
Where I worked, we generated at 13.8 kv. We used vacuum breakers, so there was no arcflash to see. Most of the substations were indoors. PPE was required for all switching,however, the high cal. PPE was needed for the low voltage switchgear on the 480 V bus. Power Plant and Papermill combined.
Im not sure why they move so slowly. When we open AB from the ground we try to open them as fast as possible so there isnt an arc. Arcing although neat to see isnt a good thing at all
Wonder why the disconnectors move so slowly. I would've thought they'd move very fast and try to break the connection as fast as possible to minimise arcing which could damage the equipment.
Because these are tests of 'what if the power was accidentally on', normally there is a breaker on one or both sides that opens the circuit before those open, they exist to be absolutely certain that the line is not getting power from one side to the other
In almost all shown cases, the breakers already switched the power off, so the arcs are sustained by only a few amperes, causing not much heating and therefore damage.
What amazes me is that you don't need much power at all to turn those switches. Instinctively, I imagine incredible forces in those arcs pulling the switches close, but that's just not how it works.
Abren los seccionadores con la carga conectada, por eso sucede ese fenómeno. Lo que se debe hacer es accionar primero el interruptor y luego abrir sin problemas los seccionadores. Visualmente es increíble pero es extremadamente peligroso. Físicamente lo que sucede es que se rompe la rigidez dieléctrica del aire que es de 3kv/mm y el aire se transforma en un "conductor" se podría decir.
what exactly are the used for, i've seen some of them keep arcing when they are all the way open. 1:37 how does that not melt them, and does that make a dirty wave on the output?
These are mostly disconnecters, the circuit breakers would normally be used to kill the power, then protected and isolated by the disconnects. These are mostly disconnects being opened under load, which generally shouldn't happen, it's technically a fault. Looks cool though with the arcing
This is called convex current....... Breaking current at hight to instantly low....... Hence spark is generated due to load .... And Kirchhoff law is not applicable on it.. 🙏❤
