Electricity sub-station explosion

That doesn't surprise me, when I was training to become an electrical services engineer we were warned of the dangers of sub stations etc. They can go up like C4 due to the loads constantly going through them and the gases that can build up inside.

It's shocking how horrible a death it is when it happens, how the person who died didn't suffer :(
 
Last semester one of the modules on my course included sub-stations, power line tranformers and large circuit breakers etc. Our lecturer told us all about how spectacularly some can explode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkDCS8xeobg

Thats a larger substation, they use oil to help reduce arching currents when switching off live circuits. I guess that when it gets hot enough (due to fire) the oil ignites.
 
milkinc13 said:
but how can a sub station just go up like that, aren't they earthed to try prevent these things from happening?
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132kv substation, so it was likely owned by a regional power company (united utilities etc) not national grid. I've seen a few of the subs owned by UU, and the condition of them is pretty bad, they are poor at maintenance!

Transformers are filled with possibly hundreds of gallons of oil, if a fault occurs that fails to trip the Circuit breaker the fault current can reach massive amounts, and the flashover will vaporise & ignite the oil.

One of the gases given off when an arc passes through oil is acetylene -one extremely dangerous explosive gas!
 
A 132kv Sub Station is one of the scariest places I've ever been. There's exposed overhead cables all over the place and the hum from the transformers can be felt from 50 feet away.

Yes, they're earthed and have a massive earthing resistor but that much power going anywhere it shouldn't will always make a bang.

132,000v / <10ohms to earth = 13,200A

132,000v x 13,200A = 1,742,400,000w

Bang
 
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