Raising existing substation for flooding

[rockman7892]

A customer is looking to raise their existing substation distribution box structure for flood level purposes. This is a typical box structure with breakers.

New distribution breakers will be supplied that are elevated higher off ground and therefore hardware on structures need to be raised as well.

There are proposed options to either raise steel support and attachment members on existing structure by drilling and tapping existing steel to raise members and another solution proposed to move the structure off to the side and raise the elevation of the concrete foundation before placing steel back on structure.

I’ve done a few of these projects where a new elevated structure was built adjacent to existing and then everything cut over, but I’ve never heard of either of the proposed options with raising existing structure.

Anyone ever have any experience with raising existing box structure in place?

 

[bacon4life]

Are you talking about something like 15 kV class walk in switchgear?

Or a bunch of stand alone 15 kV breakers?

<story>We used to have a couple Feeder Vacuum Reclosers (FVRs) mounted on a 2 ft tall platform, simply because the engineer did not realized legs were installed in the shortest setting for shipping, and were supposed unbolted/rebolted in a higher position for field installation. </story.

Both of these seem pretty easy to temporarily elevate using either of the methods you mentioned. The need to build new adjacent, then cut over could be driven by:

1. Inability to de-energize the equipment for sufficient periods of time,
2. Short useful lifespan left in existing equipment
3. Complexity of making sure the retrofits would be adequate for seismic risks

When equipment is elevated, it is important to verify that all maintenance and operation tasks can still be performed safely. A simple platform as shown in this image might appear to provide access, but AI failed to consider this platformed presents a significant risk of stepping off backwards while working on the device. Additionally, elevating equipment can require the additional use of ladders or lifts to access certain components. The new foundation should be designed to still allow placement of adequate elevated work surfaces.