Portable Substations
Because accidents and natural disasters can happen at any time, utility companies need a plan of action prepared and ready to go. Avail portable, substations provide utilities with a quick, convenient power recovery solution. Designed to restore or deliver power wherever it is needed, as fast as it is needed, Avail portable substations can play an integral part in that recovery plan.
A fast response to a fiery situation
When a forty-year-old metal-clad switchgear experienced a catastrophic failure, it started a fire in a faulted section of the metal-enclosed bus. The fire then spread quickly to an adjacent bus, shutting down the entire switchgear and disrupting a critical power load.
The faulted switchgear was immediately removed from the pad and the disconnected cables were insulated with insulating sleeves until the load could be fed from a transformer via the portable switchgear furnished by Avail.
Since the utility had more than one portable switchgear available, it allowed them to promptly bring one of the units to the distribution substation site. The line side of the portable switchgear was fed from the transformer secondary, allowing the utility to quickly restore power to the critical load and remain functional. This provided valuable time to work out a long-term solution for the replacement of the faulted switchgear.
In this instance, the utility’s portable switchgear unit was dual rated for 5kV/15kV, 2000A, 40kA. Avail is also able to provide portable switchgear through 38kV, 3000A, 40kA, which are suitable for top or bottom entry and in compliance with nationally recognized standards.