January the 2nd 1999. Cold winters day in Akron,Ohio with a storm blowing in.
High winds and blowing snow with almost zero visiblity at times. I'm a trouble
shooter for the Ohio Edison Co. with 28 years experience. I received a no
light call down south, possible recloser locked open. Recloser was in and I
checked the first transformer down line to make sure it was operating ok.
Dispatcher told me to check on a couple of junction fuses down line. One 65T
fuse, of two was melted out. I patrolled and found nothing. Refused and held.
Everyone was back on. On to the next call. Later that day I received another
call, back at the same location as before. This time the other fuse was melted
out. Patrolled and was about to find the same thing as before,nothing, when a
customer stopped me and said that he saw his 10kva csp transformer blow up.
Fighting the elements, I took that 10 csp off line and refused the cutout.
Everyone is back on, except the one customer. Called for a crew to replace the
10. Back at the shop, I ran into the crew, when the dispatcher called me again
stating the same fuse was out again. The 10 csp mwasn't the problem. Crew
headed that way and I went to another call. When the crew got there the 65T
fuse was melted out again. The "A" man went to refuse the door when he heard a
arcing noise at the bottom of the cut out. Both ends of the cut out door was
hot with a melted out 65T fuse hanging out the bottom. Patrolled and found
that the two phases had blown together and welded themselves to each other.
They pulled the two phases apart,took the slack out them, then refused and
everything was back to normal. Close call. If the "A" man would not of heard
the arcing, he would have closed in and crossed phased two 7200 volt lines.
That was using his senses. Loop looper7271@aol.com