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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    South Arkansas
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    786

    Default Cap Banks.......aka Bomb Squad

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    At least that's what we called it when we had to work on em!!

    Is anybody still hooking up Cap banks the old way?

    As in hanging the bank, and then running a span (or more) of 120V secondary for control voltage for it.........That's the way we did for umpteen years........

    Most of new Cap banks I'm seeing that are being put up, all have 4 fused switches and a small 3/4KVA (.75KVA) pot built right on the rack with the caps.....seems like it would be less work, but might be confusing to some of the apes coming up, if they don't pay attention.........

    I guess everything is changing too, seeing more and more stuff done now that we never used to do............

    Like having a UG Dip on a pot pole, with 2 switches on the same pole.........

    Like pulling a single phase lateral off of a pot pole, and hanging the fuse switch for the lateral on the same pole, by the pot switch, we used to do it, but we put the lateral switch on the first pole off the take-off.....to avoid confusion, and keep somebody from opening the wrong switch and getting hurt.........gotta keep your head screwed on...all the time!!!

    Guess I'm just thinking about random stuff.........shoulder is acting up, hurting like a bitch, and the pills haven't kicked in and I can't sleep!!!

    See what you young hands have got to look forward to after hookin for 35-40 years.......and you're wore out and broke down!!!!!
    Old Lineman Never Die......We Just Don't Raise Our Booms As Often

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Southern Indiana is home. But I work all over.
    Posts
    469

    Default

    Most of our cap banks have a doughnut CT on b phase on the older ones and the newer ones have a insulator on B phase that acts as a CT to provide control power to the 3 oil switches on the rack with the caps..

    Some but very few have the service ran for 120 to feed the controler..

    With the CTs it makes for a nice install!

  3. #3

    Default

    still using 120 to feed cap bank but don't have much demand now that alot of our industries have left town. had alot of 300 and 600 amp banks. Then about 15 years went to 1200 kvar an thought this is the only way to go. Now we have four 1200 that are out of service with bad parts and we don't need to replace them. Damn glad we buy and ship everything over seas!!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Fort Worth
    Posts
    638

    Default

    All our new stuff comes with a 1kva pot hung on the rack. The fourth cutout we mount just inches from the capacitor cutout (same phase)... been installing quite a few of them lately.

    We have one that I know of where it's radio controlled to come on and off from this industrial place... that one the control voltage comes from a span away that feeds some guard lights.

    I've heard there is a few others in our system where it has CT's on it so that it'll come on and off on it's own that-a-way.

    At the coop I was at all it was is open it with a stick and do it quick, no flash guards on the cutouts and I don't recall anyone having a load break tool.

    Our district kinda frowns upon us using the old press wrench, MD6 tool (whatever), they like us using gator tools for all the crimping... when the battery dies the old wood handles comes out.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Heart of Virginia, USA
    Posts
    764

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Trbl639 View Post
    At least that's what we called it when we had to work on em!!

    Is anybody still hooking up Cap banks the old way?

    As in hanging the bank, and then running a span (or more) of 120V secondary for control voltage for it.........That's the way we did for umpteen years........

    Most of new Cap banks I'm seeing that are being put up, all have 4 fused switches and a small 3/4KVA (.75KVA) pot built right on the rack with the caps.....seems like it would be less work, but might be confusing to some of the apes coming up, if they don't pay attention.........

    I guess everything is changing too, seeing more and more stuff done now that we never used to do............

    Like having a UG Dip on a pot pole, with 2 switches on the same pole.........

    Like pulling a single phase lateral off of a pot pole, and hanging the fuse switch for the lateral on the same pole, by the pot switch, we used to do it, but we put the lateral switch on the first pole off the take-off.....to avoid confusion, and keep somebody from opening the wrong switch and getting hurt.........gotta keep your head screwed on...all the time!!!

    Guess I'm just thinking about random stuff.........shoulder is acting up, hurting like a bitch, and the pills haven't kicked in and I can't sleep!!!

    See what you young hands have got to look forward to after hookin for 35-40 years.......and you're wore out and broke down!!!!!
    I'm picking up what your puttin down Tman... Weathers been humid as shit here in VA last 4-5 days and everything fuggin hurts... the caps you describe sound like the old joslens we used to hang at Dominion... they switched to the all in one kinda rack ... hell 15 years ago or better? but still a pile of that old shit out there I reckon...

    for what it's worth

    Edge

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    usa/ Oklahoma
    Posts
    2,221

    Default The cap. removal.

    We removed one once. I don't remember why. System was 3 phase 12470 Wye. The capacitor was one of those phase to phase types. 3 lugs and a phase on each lug. Fixed bank. They used those load break angel wing cutouts. Rose was acting foreman and we had a trucky. 3 man crew. I climbed up, opened the cutouts and then donned me old rubbers and handlined it down. They took it off the hand line and set it up in the bed of the linetruck. The trucky climbed up in the back of the truck to move the cap a little further forward and tie it with a piece of rope so it wouldn't fall over.

    He was barehanded. Suddenly there was a blood curdling scream. The exclamation, GODDAMN was spoken.

    I had carefully used rubbers and you know you really gotta be careful with charged capacitors. I think he thought I did it on purpose, but you know me better than that.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Virginia, USA
    Posts
    549

    Post Cap Removal

    At both the Coop I am at and the one I used to work standing rule is if the capacitor isn't in a rack on the pole the bushings are shorted with a piece of 6 sol copper. Edge may be able to tell us if it's true, but the story in Virginia was about 1986-88 Dominion sent a warehouse man to the hospital. The story we heard was the storage yard was directly under a 230KV line and a 200kvar cap that was not externally grounded built up a charge and when the warehouse man grabbed the bushings to move it he got zapped. Only reason he lived was another man was with him and started CPR. Before you guys say there is an internal shorting resistor that's supposed to prevent this scenario Dominion took the cap in question apart and found the resistor open. Not worth the chance to depend on something you can't see, we always external short them when not in service.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Southern Indiana is home. But I work all over.
    Posts
    469

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by thrasher View Post
    Not worth the chance to depend on something you can't see, we always external short them when not in service.
    Exactly.. I dont trust the resistors.. Hell most the linemen round this town dont even know they exsist but I guess its for the better otherwise they would put trust in em and get hurt..

    Seeing is believing.. If I cant see it for myself well I simply dont believe it.. Same with OCRs.. I pull the leads to get my "visual" opening before testing and grounding cause in all honesty if its made by man it along with everything else has some sort of chance to fail kinda like the open resister you mentioned Thrasher..

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    South Arkansas
    Posts
    786

    Default

    Yessir..gotten a 'wake up call' a time or two....caps sitting in the dock close to 115kv line......ones that weren't shorted!!

    Was working the bomb squad one spring with and old relay hand.working on a time/Temp bank...........I had replaced a couple of caps in the rack...buttoned the jumpers up and closed the switches from the air...was racking the bucket when 'Batman' asked if I was clear and ready...........told him to give me another minute or two, and he was getting an 8 ft switch stick out, to close the toggle switch in the controls to close the oil switches...........asked him what was up, his reply................"gives me an 8 ft head start!!"

    From then on, it was called the 'Batman Method' !!!!! A time or 2, been glad he taught me that trick!!!!

    Another time, I had to go out and drop a couple of fixed banks offline........take em off in the fall, but em back on in the spring.......anyway, was working by myself, as usual...had my load break, which I had checked/tested before I opened the first bank...and a 16ft stick on the load break.........got the first bank pulled off, got to the 2nd one,opened the first switch ok, and when I opened the second one, all hell broke loose.........the damn loadbreak went south on me.........even on the end of that 16ft stick, talk about a fatboy trying to dig a hole in the bottom of the bucket!!!!!!

    A week later, got a call, right a quitting time, from the boss to take another fixed bank of, this one about a 1/4 mile from the house, and that close to quitting time, I told the boss I'd go ahead and get it, and call it a day , he said I could either do it today, or wait till tomorrow..........decided i'd do it today...........got it pulled off, and hung the fuse barrels on the rack, and started to move the bucket, and nothing.........truck was dead....anyway, I'm right in front of McDonald's and Walmart, and all kinds of people I knew driving by and I'm trying to flag em down..we didn't have handheld radios then.......everybody just waves and keeps on going..........finally an old black guy driving a dumptruck full of smelly chicken crap stops, about 100 feet away and gets out........I get him to try to start the truck, but no luck, it'll turn over, but that's it.....ask him if he knows how to use a radio, and............

    tell him to call 7904, and tell him we got a man stuck in the air at mcDonalds, he's not hurt, but needs help..........

    7904 finally answers.... and the guy tells him I'm stuck in the air and can't get down........

    7904.........is he hurt??

    Black guy.........naw Sir, but he sho wanna come down!!!!!

    Fuel pump went out on the truck....bossman damn near burnt the starter up keeping turning it over so the pump would pump enough oil to get me down!!!!!
    Old Lineman Never Die......We Just Don't Raise Our Booms As Often

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    usa/ Oklahoma
    Posts
    2,221

    Default Dem Cap banks.

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    When I first did any cap stuff they still used the kind that would noticably bulge when they went bad. Wasn't too hard to see which one was bad. Then they started getting a type that didn't bulge. Just fuse em and wait.

    Eventually tho they came up with a meter. Just open the bank, short em out, test each one with the meter, separate the bad ones and put em back in service.

    Had an old goofy foreman once who would turn off his hearing aids before you closed in.

    One place used load break cutouts on the fixed banks. They worked alright. Last place used an oil switch in series with the cutout. Very nice.

    I remember a contract hand once who was about to close in a cap. He said to me. Watch me scare these guys. He was gonna just tease in slowly and make a big arc etc. Tickled me cause I think it wound up scaring him more than the ground hands.

    Yeah all of em new come with the little shunt wire across the terminals. Wouldn't want a warehouse hand working primary alone in the yard.

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