Reducing Arc Flash Energy in Substations

Date: July 19, 2023, 6:00 to 8:30 PM, in-person presentation and dinner at:

Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara 95053

Room to be announced, in the new Science building SCDI at SCU

See the Latimer Energy Lab at SCU

Agenda:

6:00 Check in, Meet and Greet, Latimer Energy Lab Tour

6:30 Dinner buffet

7:00 Talk

8:00 Q&A

Event Details: PES/IAS web site https://r6.ieee.org/scv-pesias/

IEEE vTools description https://events.vtools.ieee.org/tego_/event/manage/365719

About the talk:

Mitigating Arc Flash Energy is a challenge on medium voltage (MV) to low voltage (LV) substations. On the secondary side, LV switchboards or switchgear are exposed to amplified, high levels of arc flash current directly from the MV-LV transformer. This creates major issues for maintenance that cannot be resolved by including an Energy Reduced Maintenance Switch (ERMS), the typical solution for mitigating arc-flash per NEC 240.8 at the LV main breaker. The line-side of this breaker can easily have an arc flash incident energy above 40 calories/cm2 at the IEEE 1584 recommended 18 inch working distance in front of the switchboard. This high level of arc flash risk would be referenced as PPE category Dangerous. This means no PPE (personal protective equipment) is safe. It can mean the whole switchboard cannot be maintained without a shutdown.

This presentation reviews protective relays, optical sensing, and a virtual main breaker (on the LV side) as solutions to mitigate the arc flash incident energy of the LV switchboard or switchgear. These solutions make the whole substation safer. The presentation will show specific hardware configurations as well as discuss coordination and arc flash energy levels. The virtual main breaker allows the elimination of a physical secondary main, possibly saving space and cost. These solutions are available for both new and retrofitted substations

IEEE SCV Power & Energy and Industry Applications Joint Chapter

See you there!

Steve Jordan

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, United States