Monday, August 09, 2004

Stuff got blowed up real good

So, I'm typing away at the computer a little after nine AM, and a loud but dulled explosion occurs out in the station yard. I can't tell at first whether some vehicle out on the road has backfired in a massive way, or if one of the transformers really did explode. I run to the door and look out its pane; a whitish-yellow cloud of smoke has encircled the 45 kV transformer. It's DECO's stuff, to be sure, but it looks nasty.

Gordon, far more experienced than I, thinks it's a cap cell explosion. He walks out to it, has a look around while the smoke dissipates, and finds nothing to prove or disprove his hypothesis. He does hear an alarm going over on our side of the station, at the 345 kV section.

Our operator over there hears the alarm, and she comes over to check things out. She's in our relay house long before DECO's alarms finally pick up the cry. She too thinks it's a busted cap cell, but finds little beyond a melted fuse in the annunicator panel.

Why our alarms went off and not DECO's is a mystery, especially as Gordon and I had no electrical problems prior to the explosion-- which just about rules out a house-service problem.

DECO gets their own guy out, and he finds nothing-- nothing at the transformer, the cap bank, no critters lying dead outside the fence-- no reason for that large boom and cloud of smoke.

This DECO guy isn't an incompetent either. Fact is, he's the husband of our operator. And he still can't tell what happened.

Just another exciting day down at the station.

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