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

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:403460

Schiff, A J ^[1]; Tognazzini, R ^[2]; Ostrom, D ^[3]

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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
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
CALIFORNIA
EARTHQUAKES
EMERGENCY PLANS
INFORMATION NEEDS
INSTALLATION
MODIFICATIONS
POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS
POWER SUBSTATIONS
POWER TRANSMISSION TOWERS
SEISMIC EFFECTS
SHOCK ABSORBERS