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Title: Power systems after the Northridge earthquake: Emergency operations and changes in seismic equipment specifications, practice, and system configuration

Conference ·
OSTI ID:403460
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Precision Measurement Instruments, Los Altos Hills, CA (United States)
  2. Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  3. Southern California Edison, Rosemead, CA (United States)

The Northridge earthquake caused extensive damage to high voltage substation equipment, and for the first time the failure of transmission towers. Power was lost to much of the earthquake impacted area, and 93% of the customers were restored within 24 hours. To restore service, damage monitoring, communication and protective equipment, such as current-voltage transformers, wave traps, and lightning arresters, were removed or bypassed and operation restored. To improve performance some porcelain members are being replaced with composite materials for bushings, current-voltage transformers and lightning arresters. Interim equipment seismic specifications for equipment have been instituted. Some substations are being re-configured and rigid bus and conductors are being replaced with flexible conductors. Non-load carrying conductors, such as those used on lightning arrester, are being reduced in size to reduce potential interaction problems. Better methods of documenting damage and repair costs are being considered.

OSTI ID:
403460
Report Number(s):
CONF-9508226-; ISBN 0-7844-0101-2; TRN: IM9651%%495
Resource Relation:
Conference: 4. U.S. conference on lifeline earthquake engineering, San Francisco, CA (United States), 10-12 Aug 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Lifeline earthquake engineering: Proceedings of the fourth U.S. conference; O`Rourke, M.J. [ed.]; PB: 823 p.; Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering, Monograph number 6
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English