# 1200 amp 4 pole ATS swap



## MikeFL (Apr 16, 2016)

Great video. 
How long from start to finish?


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## CoolWill (Jan 5, 2019)

Live, open panels. Sitting and standing on top of a ladder.... I wouldn't have done it any different. Nice.


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

CoolWill said:


> Live, open panels. Sitting and standing on top of a ladder.... I wouldn't have done it any different. Nice.


Same here!!


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

MikeFL said:


> Great video.
> How long from start to finish?


The first night 14 hours, 1:30 am muster, set up temporary for the outage, stage materials, safety brief, coordination with maintenance, for 3am scheduled outage. 
Demo of the old switch, cut the 7 existing EMT back 12". 3-4" and 4-3", the new one was taller, install the new switch and crimp/ heat shrink the 16- 350s for the normal power to reach the bottom. (it was an option to have normal on top, we didn't order the switch), that took about 150' of cable.

We stopped and did some housekeeping before leaving at about 4PM.

We were back at 1:30am the next night to work out some controls, terminate the grounds and had the "go back" outage at 3AM. 
We disconnected the load side temporary, terminated the load and generator in the ATS, 16-350s and 12- 400s, and restored power. 
We picked up and walked out at 6am. total about another 5 hours.

We had another 16 man hours getting the new switch from the loading dock to the electric room and procurement time. Total was just about 100 man hours and $1,000 in materials.


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

The building engineer and the management wanted to know exactly what we were going to be doing, what systems were going to be down and for how long. We threw a quick procedure together for them to hand out to each other:

The formatting didn't paste very well but, this is it: 

*Replacement of Inoperative 1200amp DE1 ATS* 

Planned power outage of Elevators, Common Area Emergency Lighting, Mechanical Equipment and Domestic Water 
Property and Project Contacts:
Management/ Manager on Duty ____________________________________
Chief Engineer 
Contractor Office 
Field Electrician 

*Pre-job requirements, duties, and expectations:*
•	Notices to residences, monitoring services, elevator maintenance vendor, and building employees to be provided by Building management
•	Elevator control conductors are to be identified in the DE1 automatic transfer switch by the elevator maintenance vendor.
•	Expected outage will cause complete power outage of the following known equipment for 30 minutes twice during this procedure. Once to set up temporary by-pass and again to disconnect the bypass cables.
Known Loads in Panel DE1 that include
•	Elevators in the South Tower
•	Domestic Water Pump package
•	Panel HDE
•	Panel HEMC
•	Panel HEB
•	Panel HEA
•	Panel HEC
We propose to isolate electrical power feeding the DE1 Automatic Transfer Switch the day and hour of the planned utility outage of Panelboard DE1
1.	Open panels in switchgear housing the normal utility 1200 amp breaker feeding DE1 ATS
2.	Open panel dead front sections of Panelboard DE1 
3.	Disable the generator or open the generator breaker feeding ATS DE1
4.	Work with maintenance department to shut down Mechanical equipment associated with Electrical Panelboard DE1
5.	Clear Elevators of passengers and lockout.



*Upon the authorization of the designated building representative, the following procedure will take place in no more than 30 minutes:*
1.	Shed load from 1200 amp utility normal power panelboard DE1 by opening each individual breaker in Panelboard DE1
2.	Open 1200 amp breaker DE1 in normal power switchgear.
3.	Verify no voltage is present on utility or emergency bus of ATS DE1
4.	Remove load conductors from Normal Power 1200amp breaker and insulate
5.	Remove conductors from the main lugs of panel board DE1
6.	Connect temporary power cables from Utility DE1 breaker to lugs in Panelboard DE1
7.	Close 1200amp Breaker DE1
8.	Verify power on bus on Panelboard DE1
9.	Work with Building engineering department to perform the following:
10.	Close breakers to energize lighting loads
11.	Close breakers in Panelboard DE1 to energize elevators 
12.	Close Breakers to energize mechanical loads and domestic water packages
13.	Verify equipment operation with building engineering department.
Replacement of DE1 ATS
1.	Electricians will determinate conductors on the Normal, load and emergency power side of the DE1 ATS
2.	Identify and mark each generator control wire and verify the elevator maintenance contractor has identified and elevator control wiring entering the DE1 ATS.
3.	Remove the ATS and connect back using the existing conductors on the load and emergency side.
4.	The Normal power conductors will be spliced using Burndy Hy press crimp sleeves with 12 ton hydraulic versa crimp tool and insulated with heat shrink sleeves.
5.	Restoration of normal Power through the DE1 ATS will follow the revers order of the power outage procedure 
Backout Procedure:
*If at anytime during the planned DE1 ATS replacement utility power becomes unavailable, electricians will stop work, *
•	open the 1200amp DE1 normal power circuit breaker, 
•	disconnect he temporary cables from the utility breaker DE1 
•	connect the temporary cables to the emergency generator cables and 
•	energize Panelboard DE1 using the house generator until normal utility is determined to be restored and stable by the Building Engineering Department.
Upon restoration of normal utility power, electricians will open the emergency generator breaker and remove the temporary cables from the generator conductors and terminate on the 1200 amp DE1 utility breaker and continue with the DE1 ATS replacement


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## cdslotz (Jun 10, 2008)

Very nice!

Did you get to sell the switch?


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

cdslotz said:


> Very nice!
> 
> Did you get to sell the switch?


We install for the guy that sells the switches. 
He has contacts all over town with the generator maintenance business he owns.


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## HertzHound (Jan 22, 2019)

So somewhere between 1:30 and 3:00 AM there was a safety meeting. Was there an attendance sheet?


Only kidding


Nice job! I love it.


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

HertzHound said:


> So somewhere between 1:30 and 3:00 AM there was a safety meeting. Was there an attendance sheet?
> 
> 
> Only kidding
> ...


We Had a pre job brief with our crew and the building maintenance guys. Risks were the temporary cables, open panel boards, on call person for the blackout procedure. 

We do one of these every few weeks and my biggest concern is our guys fatigue and overconfidence.

We use clock shark. Time stamp, gps, notes, pics, the guys have been really good about documentation. They take pics of their receipts, completed work. It’s been good for us.
I don’t have to collect time sheets and everyone has their schedule text and emailed to them. If I make a change, it updates. Every job has contact info, scope of work, materials, the address in it with a button that connects to their preferred map app.


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