good morning!

anyone here have any experiences with single-phase vacuum capacitor switches?
specifically, type "vcs-1m" switches made by cooper power systems. i recieved and "invitation to bid" on the replacement of 96 of these switches, at 4 different locations owned by the same customer. i am interested in any advise, tips, or any other info on replacing these things. not sure if i want to bid on the job until i see whats involved with them.
thanks, in advance for any help..

gramps

Looks like the installation is intended for crossarm mounting in medium-voltage overhead distribution, right?

They are not oil-insulated, so that's a plus. Reference: www.cooperpower.com/Products/Distribution/ Switches/single.asp

Are the capacitors in an ungrounded-wye arrangement? That their racks are grounded or ungrounded does not generally affect operational safety. To ground or not is usually a matter of prior acceptable design and practice for the local area/specific utility. Of course, see that the vacuum switches are appropriately rated for this duty.

What type of fuse is specified? You may want to request the cutouts be loadbreak-rated specifically for capacitor protection/disconnecting. It’s quite a different game in capacitor {versus inductive-load} switching. To avoid fuse operation on hot-up, you might want to test each can on the ground immediately before sending them up the hand line. Quality control of capacitor production is quite good these days, but internal damage in transit is possible, and closing into a damaged can may be a bit “noisy.”




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 12-03-2002).]

thanx, bj, for your quick reply. ....you have raised some questions that i cant answer yet, and i'll begin today looking into this further, with the customer's engineers. i'll post back as soon as i learn more about the job in question.
thanks again!

anyone else have some insight on this project?


gramps