Kelvin Substation Blowout

K

Keeper

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Don't know much about this, as our companies ADSL cap has been reached, can only surf locally...

All i know is the Kelvin Substation caught fire, power out, and now it's back on...
well, heard 3/4 of it is back on, on the radio...

where did all this "4-8 days of no-power" come from?

anyone know?
 
Isn't this the third one this week? Substations aren't designed to be switched on and off. Eskom seems to have failed to remember this (Oh, sorry all the skilled technicians that were at Eskom and would have known this took packages and left), the idiots.
 
Sub-stations have transformers. These transformers are filled with oil. You can only switch the transformer on and off x-number of times before the oil carbonises and has to be replaced. If you fail to replace the oil the carbon deposits in the oil cause arcing (the oil is there to suppress the arcing) and fires are the end result. The obvious thing here is: load-shedding = switching on and off more often = replacing the transformer oil more often! However that requires joined-up thinking which is apparently in very short supply at the moment.

All the qualified sparkies have been given golden handshakes and those remaining have obviously never bothered with routine maintenance! It seems in the new South Africa "maintenance" is a word which is no longer understood.
 
PCTECH said:
Sub-stations have transformers. These transformers are filled with oil. You can only switch the transformer on and off x-number of times before the oil carbonises and has to be replaced. If you fail to replace the oil the carbon deposits in the oil cause arcing (the oil is there to suppress the arcing) and fires are the end result. The obvious thing here is: load-shedding = switching on and off more often = replacing the transformer oil more often! However that requires joined-up thinking which is apparently in very short supply at the moment.

All the qualified sparkies have been given golden handshakes and those remaining have obviously never bothered with routine maintenance! It seems in the new South Africa "maintenance" is a word which is no longer understood.
Click to expand...

You'd be correct if you changed the word "transformers" to "breakers".

Most of these breakers use the same type of oil to function as you describe.

Transformers are very low maintenance and not adversely effected by the power switching.
 
Frankie said:
You'd be correct if you changed the word "transformers" to "breakers".

Most of these breakers use the same type of oil to function as you describe.

Transformers are very low maintenance and not adversely effected by the power switching.
Click to expand...

:) I'm a computer technician not a sparky and I did get the term wrong. I apologise for that. Fact remains, had the oil been timeously replaced the fire wouldn't have happened.
 
all i wanted to know was:

is it resolved now, or whats the story with the 4-8 day power out?
 
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