ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area HV cable "spike" test video: 3000 amp short

Very impressive demonstration, introduced by a very impressive girl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqfUVDiRDRg
Is that a slight Irish accent she has? I wish it was stronger!

That reminded me of a story an instructor told me years ago. I guess "old schooled" linemen were taught to discharge the the static shield (the spiral copper strip in the video) they would take a nail and pierce the outer jacket and ground out the nail on a de-energized cable of course. Unfortunate the guy in the story just assummed the line was dead. The wrong switch was thrown. To only add to the mess, he was in an underground vault and the switch that was suppose to been thrown was an auto-reset type. Well, the switch worked just like it was suppose to and the guy supposedly survived all three blasts.

Imagine being in the vault or manhole when this happens:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sopTVjKJs00

You link has issues. it has a couple too many slashes in it. I would not want to be in a vault when anything happens. I was in a vault one time with deenergized 480 3 phase late one evening when my headlamp went dead. Not a good feeling. Even knowing the power was off. Electricity is all about theory. "Well in theory the power is off..."

You're in luck! She gave out her phone number...

Here's a nice picture of the lovely Sonja:
http://www.eland.co.uk/company/people/marketing-team/

When you put the mouse pointer over the image, she smiles...