Medium Voltage Air Circuit Breaker upgraded to Vacuum

[living2learn]

I have an old MV Air ckt breaker that has a breaker indicator broken and close coil cutoff switch broken. I would like to upgrade this to a vacuum breaker.

Q1) What do you have to do to retrofit a vacuum breaker to fit into the old air breaker spot. What have people done in the past? Could I provide a new rack mechanisim and try to line the stabs up? Reuse the existing roller rack?

Q2) Would a recomendation be to just fix that part or would a entirely new circut breaker be worth it?

Q3) If I am unable to get accurate as-built information is there any other way to verify if the new vacuum will fit. I am asking if there are industry standards that were typically followed around 20+ years ago for the location of the stabs and etc.

Thanks for your assistance.

 

[DTR2011]

There are many companies out there that can provide a Vacuum Retrofill breaker.

It would be helpful to state what nameplate data you have on the breaker. Some designs work better than others (DHP comes to mind as a problem).

I believe ZogZogs company can help with this.

 

[dpc]

It is generally possible to get a direct roll-in vacuum breaker replacement for existing air breakers.

First option would be to contact the original equipment manufacturer with the order number or serial number of the original switchgear. Depending on the supplier, they can quote direct replacement breakers.

Second option is to go with a third-party vacuum breaker replacement. As smallgreek indicated there are probably several companies who can do this.

Third option is to buy a rebuilt air breaker, matching what you have.

Fourth and probably worst option is to attempt an on-site repair of the existing breaker. This will depend somewhat on how well these have been maintained over the years. A refurbished air breaker should not be terribly expensive and will come with a warranty and test data.

But I would probably try to find a replacement vacuum breaker.

David Castor

http://www.cvoes.com

 

[dpmac]

If you are considering converting your existing ACB to a VCB yourself or in-house I must advise against it. There are hundreds of reasons that many of the companies that used to perform this service don't do it anymore. It is not a simple thing to do(no matter how easy it may look)and a small mistake can incur catastrophic results.

No matter what breaker you have a reputable firm or Mfg. has already done a retrofit for it.

Why not post some more info on what you have, I am sure you will get good guidance here.

 

[ScottyUK]

Get a type-tested solution from a company who have put their design through fault tests and had it certified. You don't want some self-built design coming apart under a heavy fault, and sometimes the weaknesses in a design aren't easy to spot.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[living2learn]

The circuit breaker is a federal peacific 15kV, 1200A, Air, 1968 serial number 1069026, 500MVA, 125VDC, 115VAC. It was addded to some existing switchgear some 43 years ago.

 

[living2learn]

Does anybody know what company ZOGZOG works/owns for?

 

[mayanees]

I just talked to him and he will get to this board later this afternoon. He is cbsnuclear.
John M

 

[dpmac]

The FPE DST-2 breaker was reasonably popular. Obtaining a re-manufactured or vacuum retro-filled breaker should be no problem. Zog will be able to help you out.

 

[Zogzog]

Sorry I am late, just finished driving 400 miles.

I agree with everything said so far, and I do have several options for you. We have plenty of remanufatured air versions of this, and plenty of parts should you ever need them.

For vacuum I have a couple options, Westinghouse made a roll in replacement for these that used a VCP element in a DST frame, and I have some of those available. For years we also used our own element mounted on the original air model frame but after thousands of these we finally learned it was better to build them new from scratch, which we do for most breakers out there and I have some new ones in stock for a 15kV 1200A DST.

http://www.cbsnuclear.com

- Scott (zogzog)