Catastrophic Switchgear Failure
Our client is one of the largest hospital boards in Wales and serves the North. It has a major A&E unit as well as a vast amount of other departments, but due to a water leak, its switchgear suffered a failure.
The Challenge
During the January winter of 2016, one of the hospital’s main switch rooms suffered a water leak. The results of this led to a huge flash-over in the main switchboard of this substation.
The switchboard was fed by two 1000kVA transformers running in parallel.
Due to the location of both incomers, the failure melted the incoming section bus bars in this area. The section was isolated and sectioned via the bus coupler, and the remainder of the switchboard was run via the hospital’s standby generator.
The Solution
Johnson & Phillips were called to the site to provide their expert assessment of the damage along with another specialist company. Johnson & Phillips assessed the damaged switchboard section, and our engineers advised they could repair it on-site and in situ.
The other company wanted to remove the end section and estimated eight weeks. Johnson & Phillips were chosen to carry out the work. Our engineers rebuilt the incoming section by renewing the damaged busbars and installed two new incoming air circuit breakers on-site, and within three days of starting the works, the incoming section was complete and re-energised.
The Results
Our engineers carried out the following:
- Johnson & Phillips provided an initial assessment.
- Removed all the damaged bus bars.
- Removed both incoming air circuit breakers.
- Fabricated the new bus bars on-site.
- Installed the new air circuit breakers.
- Renewed all the control to align with the new ACBs.
- Tested and commissioned.
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