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Exploding Transformers (hurricane damage)

They were showing on the news that transformers on poles were exploding. Why do they explode? I know that shorting causes this, but generally they are protected by fuses on the poles.

Reply to
maradcliff
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A lot of time it is just the fuse that "explodes".

Reply to
gfretwell

Fuses make nice fire balls. If the fault comes faster than the fuse can blow then the transformer grenades. Which is generally REALLY spectacular.

Reply to
SQLit

They just happened to be interviewing a woman stranded in her car in the middle of the hurricane, when a transformer blew right in view of the camera. It was VERY spectacular. Looked like fireworks. Everything went dark, except for the tv crew lights, and the reporter got rather excited, but immediately said it was a transformer. The AC hum was something else !!! I wish I could see that news clip again. Immediately after they showed a huge piece of roof steel entangled in the wires behind them. so that was most likely the cause. Those reporters are often pretty wreckless. What started out as a pretty mundane interview turned out quite spectacular. Of course those reporters love stuff like that....

Reply to
maradcliff

....

I say clueless...

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

They have to be careful who they turn off. Some people are on life support equipment. Turning power off could kill them. When the power does go off, they are the first ones restored.

Stretch

Reply to
Stretch

just because there are a lot of sparks etc, what makes you think that a __transformer__ blew up?

every see what a high voltage (not a 120 Volt line) line does when it touches the ground?

pretty spectacular

Mark

Reply to
Mark

Like all major storms, power is out to 1,000,000 people. Well, since they know that is going to happen, why don't they shut power off to the affected areas before hand, so they don't have to replace all the blown up transformers?

Is it a liability issue; they would be sued if they cut power, so they let nature do it?

We had a major ice storm here 14 years ago that took 2 weeks to recover from. Someone I knew went to a hill overlooking the town and watched the transformers blow up all over town; said it was spectacular.

Reply to
Toller

They spend a lot of "time" replacing transformers but most power is restored by simply replacing fuses. The real problem is when the lines and poles are destroyed., That really takes time, money and labor.

Reply to
gfretwell

Well, the electric company spent the next two weeks replacing transformers. Or they lied to the newspapers about what they were doing; I can't say which.

Reply to
Toller

Could be from the pictures on the news showing transformers blowing up????

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I can appreciate the liability, but the power is going out anyway in a Cat 4 or 5 storm. Shut down ahead, it would be restored much faster for the rest of the population. I'd think that at least some sections would be taken out, away from hospitals. Many hospitals have backup power anyway for just that reason.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Different areas of a citie's electrical distribution system have circuit breakers which when tripped, can be seen from the ground (that they are tripped)....

When we have had wind storms in my area, some lines will be knocked down and will trip the circuit breakers for that area.

When they restore power, they drive around and inspect the circuit breakers for each area as well as the main distribution lines. And visually inspect all the lines which they will be powering up. (Could be something damaged which did not trip a breaker.)

They bypass looking at areas which have tripped circuit breakers for the time being.

Then they restore power to the main distribution lines. At this point, they can pick and choose who gets their power restored first. Vital areas (hospitals, etc.) have first priority. And will then inspect those specific areas.

So seems to me that if power were not on during the wind storm, no breakers would have tripped where lines came down, and it would take longer to inspect everything (could not bypass looking at areas where breaker was tripped).

And then there is the legal thing. I suppose someone would sue them if they deliberately turned off power.

Reply to
Bill

Could be the pictures actually show fuses blowing rather than transformers themselves???

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

Probably not a significant difference in restoration time owing to much of the damage being far more severe than just replacing fuses in a transformer.

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

transformers.

Or they just gave a 'simple answer' to the media. Better to just say something people can grasp instead of something they'll misinterpret. Telling them it's just a matter of manually resetting a breaker or replacing a fuse might encourage some jackass to start climbing up poles to do it himself and present a whole other rats nest of hassles.

In an ice storm you're screwed more by the weight on the wires pulling them down or loose from their connections. That sort of problem wouldn't be saved, really, by turning off the power. Think of it another way, if the power was off and the lines failed, when power was turned back on they'd still end up tripping or blowing something up. Better to have the dead spots already detected by letting them blow out rather than have to hunt them down one-by-one as you return power.

Fundamentally, unless the communities work to bury the lines properly there's not much worth doing. The balancing act of long-term reliability vs short-term trenching costs and disruptions always seems the end up the latter. People are too stupid to recognize the long-term benefits. As long as power doesn't go out 'too often' they only whine about it but do nothing to get it solved.

Reply to
wkearney99

"Stretch" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

If I were on life support dependent on electric power,I would have a backup generator.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

"Toller" wrote in news:FvoZe.7954$ snipped-for-privacy@news02.roc.ny:

Transformers can "blow up" if they have too much load put on them,there can be weak spots or stresses in the windings that fail under extreme loads. With those power levels,that is why they "blow up".

Reply to
Jim Yanik

The coolest thing I ever saw was in high school at football practice. Our kicker was practicing field goals and the ball hit one of the live wires on the poles. For whatever reason, the two hot wires on the pole were close enough together that the football caused them to get close enough to arc. As the wire started oscillating, there were sparks flying between the wires from pole-to-pole. It was the most awesome thing I have every seen. After it blew out the power on the adjacent street, some redneck lady came out of her house across the street and shouted something to the effect of "Whoever did that better turn them damn lights back on". Yea right lady, like that highschool football player is going to climb the pole and fix it.

Reply to
User Example

Well, actually it does eliminate a sizable fraction of the weather-related outage causes pretty effectively. It isn't practical for really large lines nor for some areas for other reasons such as too much stuff already buried or too much infrastructure in the way that requires excessive initial cost, though...

Transmission cables can be traced pretty well w/ TDR, etc., for break location and so on and it's not that much worse to dig than it is to work up on a pole in freezing rain or high wind. Overall, I'd estimate it's about a wash...

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

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