# Tripped transformer breaker today



## Englishsparky (Nov 6, 2010)

Oops!!!!


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## jwjrw (Jan 14, 2010)

Shockdoc said:


> I wasn't too popular with the nieghbors today....I had a #8 on 40 amp subfeed i was disconnecting tough a grounded component. The 40 amp breaker tripped simultaniously with the transformer breaker . LIPA had to come out and reset it.



Is there a reason you were doing it hot? That sucks. Never had it happen to me but I did kick the main at a busy gas station and screwed up about 40 people pumping gas.


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## GDK 13 (Oct 6, 2009)

Did they give you **** about it? Just curious as to how they handled it.


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

Meh, child's play. 

I was on a crew that drove a ground rod right through an underground 12kv 3-phase feeder and took out an entire industrial complex. 

Thankfully, no one got hurt and it wasn't our fault, USA (Underground Service Alert) screwed up and missed the locate by over 8 feet.


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## Shockdoc (Mar 4, 2010)

GDK 13 said:


> Did they give you **** about it? Just curious as to how they handled it.


Naw, they were cool about it, there are three commercial buildings and two residences tapped off the low pot of a open belta bank. 
It must have been running agood load when i had my short.


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## ohiosparky99 (Nov 12, 2009)

we were doing some work on a school recently with a 1200 amp that was gfci protected, someone was changing a bad receptacle in the kitchen. shorted it out by accident and took out the main, very interesting to say the least


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## Shockdoc (Mar 4, 2010)

jwjrw said:


> Is there a reason you were doing it hot? That sucks. Never had it happen to me but I did kick the main at a busy gas station and screwed up about 40 people pumping gas.


Arrived on site late, masons were already waiting for me to temporarily move panel so they can construct block wall for my service equipment.


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## JTMEYER (May 2, 2009)

Never done that. But I did ground fault one whole wing of the factory I worked at. Anybody that has worked a factory knows something bad has happened when the plant around you changes octaves.


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## kaboler (Dec 1, 2010)

Hahahaha tripping big stuff huh guys?

I have tripped 1 thing so far. I hooked up a fan for airflow, 0.125 amps or something like that, and tested it. All good. I put the switch in the box, put the cover on, tested it again, and POP!!!

Me and the owner of the haircutting place in the dark. Lucky for me, I had my tiny portable LED flashlight handy, cuz I was in the dark! And, the main breaker for the place was in an electrical room, but the maint guy was 5 minutes out. Whew!!!

You guys ever work in a computery place, where if you short something out, all of a big big outfit's computers'll wink out, and basically, it's the end of the world?


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

I got to clean up a mess a year or so ago, it seems that a crew of imbeciles somehow left the ground set on a 12.5KV switchgear, then closed in a 120KV SF6 breaker that fed a 35MVA transformer that in turn, fed the 12.5KV switchgear. 

The ground set is 4/0 flexible cable (sorta like welding cable) that connects all 3 phase busses together and also connects them to the ground bus. The 120KV line was tapped about 20 miles from the plant. About 30 miles north of the tap is a substation, and another one about 40 miles south. 

The voltage at the north sub went down to about 70KV, the south one was about 90KV. 

It's kind of hard to tell from the ground, but the lines coming into the plant looked like 397MCM, I don't know what the others were. 

After I got the protection relays so they would actually trip the SF6 breaker, I never heard how it all ended. 

Rob


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## LARMGUY (Aug 22, 2010)

kaboler said:


> Hahahaha tripping big stuff huh guys?
> 
> You guys ever work in a computery place, where if you short something out, all of a big big outfit's computers'll wink out, and basically, it's the end of the world?


 
Yep, A large manufacturing plant in Tulsa. Installing fire wires behind the mainframe computer power supply and UPS. I was coming down out of the ceiling grid when I heard, "Don't touch that red button, Aww Sh!t!" EEEEeeerrrrrruuuuuoooooo...silence. 
They had a big mushroom button without a cover on the power for the computers for their entire plant! It took a half day to start everything back up.
Idiots! I think I was madder at them than they were at me. They had a cover put on it that day. They later admitted that it had happened several times in the past but had not had the time to install a cover.


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

Haven't tripped anything big, but I accidentally shut down a water treatment plant over the summer.

I was on a ladder running some conduit above the main gear. Needed something out of the van but when I stepped down the ladder, my tool belt got hung up on the main 800A service disconnect breaker handle. All my momentum was going down, and it was enough to shut it off. Whoops.

No backup generator either 

Everything came back up fine when we re-energized, just had to reset a couple miscellaneous instruments and stuff.

But I felt like a dumbass :laughing:


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## Jlarson (Jun 28, 2009)

I have never tripped anything off or taken down any of the power grid. 

But I've come damn close to it more times than I care to count :laughing:


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## Frank Mc (Nov 7, 2010)

mxslick said:


> Meh, child's play.
> 
> I was on a crew that drove a ground rod right through an underground 12kv 3-phase feeder and took out an entire industrial complex.
> 
> Thankfully, no one got hurt and it wasn't our fault, USA (Underground Service Alert) screwed up and missed the locate by over 8 feet.


Wow!!!!!...That was a close call...Good to hear no one was hurt...

Frank


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## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

Jlarson said:


> I have never tripped anything off or taken down any of the power grid.
> 
> But I've come damn close to it more times than I care to count :laughing:


 Good thing you don't care about counting:laughing:


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

Frank Mc said:


> Wow!!!!!...That was a close call...Good to hear no one was hurt...
> 
> Frank


Yeah it was interesting. I was holding the rod, my coworker was running the impact, I noticed what I thought was dust or smoke rising around the rod then BOOM, huge bang as the POCO's fuse cutouts blew. 

We were both wearing gloves (leather over rubber, but not rated to 12kV) and I think it was only the wetness of the soil that kept us from getting hit. 

We had to deal with a lot of pissed-off people until we showed them the locate marks. 

Took POCO 24 hours to re-pull the feeder. 

Very embarrassing.


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

2003 East Coast blackout? Buddy of mine was a major reason it cascaded outside of Ohio. Last I heard he moved to Vegas and is now dealing blackjack.


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## mattsilkwood (Sep 21, 2008)

I was looking at some baseboard heaters at a dance class, took a cover off one and a wirenut came off and it hit the side of the heater. It tripped through the 20a it was on and took out the main. 
It wouldn't have been a big deal except the class consisted of about 40 11 and 12 year old girls. From the sounds coming out of that building you would have thought the world was ending.:laughing:


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

Zog said:


> 2003 East Coast blackout? Buddy of mine was a major reason it cascaded outside of Ohio. Last I heard he moved to Vegas and is now dealing blackjack.


How did that happen, Zog? I don't remember much about it, but it seems to me that more than a few relays didn't quite do their jobs.

There's likely a lot more to an outage that size than we'll ever know though.


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

micromind said:


> How did that happen, Zog? I don't remember much about it, but it seems to me that more than a few relays didn't quite do their jobs.
> 
> There's likely a lot more to an outage that size than we'll ever know though.


Long story
http://www.nerc.com/docs/docs/blackout/NERC_Final_Blackout_Report_07_13_04.pdf


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## greco (Sep 24, 2010)

I dropped power to 1/2 of a semiconductor fab. I have to put my toes on the housekepping pad to look in the windows on the SQD visi vac switch line up.
Just as I was stepping down from the incoming switch I grabbed the door interlock. I hear a loud thunk and then the springs charging for the next operation. I could not believe I did that, I have checked in there 1000's of times. I gave the generator and transfer switch time to operate then closed the visi vac, then had to fes up.


Jeff


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