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HV Test Equipment


Why calibrate test equipment

You’re serious about your electrical test instruments. You buy top brands, and you expect them to be accurate. You know some people send their digital instruments to a metrology lab for calibration, and you wonder why. After all, these are all electronic — there’s no meter...

Breaker Testing

Circuit Breaker Time and Motion Testing

Determining mechanical condition of high-voltage circuit breakers BY JOZEF LEVI, Doble Engineering Company Life expectancy of a newly installed high-voltage circuit breaker is approximately 40 years. Throughout its life, under normal circuit conditions, the circuit breaker will operate less than...

Safe Work Verified Through Data Logging Technology

On Distribution, Transmission or Substation equipment, testing for presence or absence of nominal voltage is mandated specifically by OSHA rule 1910.269(n)(5) which states “Testing. The employer shall ensure that, unless a previously installed ground is present, employees test lines and...

Cable Testing Comes of Age - One Cycle at a Time

Field Testing of MV and HV cables has come a long way in recent decades. Gone are the days of old, when the traditional DC (Direct Voltage/Current) hipot was the recommended method for testing these modern cables that form the critical backbone of the distribution electrical power network....

IR Inspection Windows for Electrical System Reliability

An Infrared Inspection Window is used to separate environments of differing pressures or temperatures while allowing light energy at a specified electromagnetic wavelength to pass between the two environments. They must meet the strength and environmental requirements for the type of equipment in...

Ground Tester Section Criteria

Ground Tester Section Criteria is important to decide. The electrical grounding component of an electrical facility can be easily overlooked. It doesn’t appear to have an active role. It isn’t moving, doesn’t emit light or sound, or provide data. It’s largely out of sight....

HV Testing

Vacuum Interrupter Testing for Circuit Breakers

How to predict field life using vacuum interrupters

BY FINLEY LEDBETTER, Group CBS

Utilities have widely replaced older air-magnetic and oil interrupters for circuit breakers rated at one kilovolt (kV) or higher with vacuum interrupters (VI) due to higher interrupt capability. Vacuum interrupters also last up to 10 times the expected lifetime than newer sulfur hexafluoride (SF-6) gas interrupters. Unfortunately, the downside to building a protective device with a long service life is that utility...

HV Test Equipment Articles