Independent Assessment of Dislodged Manhole Covers
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Final Report R20-05 Independent Assessment of Dislodged Manhole Covers Prepared for The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications & Energy December 9, 2005 Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution, Inc. Power Technologies International 1482 Erie Boulevard • P.O. Box 1058 Schenectady, New York 12301-1058 US Tel: 518-395-5000 • Fax: 518-346-2777 www.pti-us.com This page intentionally left blank. Contents Legal Notice................................................................................................................v Executive Summary ................................................................................................vii Section 1 Background and Perspective.............................................................. 1-1 1.1 Underground Electric Distribution Systems ........................................................... 1-1 1.2 Manhole Events ...................................................................................................... 1-2 1.3 Causes of Dislodged Manhole Covers................................................................... 1-3 1.3.1 Energy Release in Manholes ................................................................... 1-3 1.3.2 Feeder Faults............................................................................................ 1-4 1.3.3 Overloads.................................................................................................. 1-4 1.3.4 PILC Cable Failure Modes ....................................................................... 1-5 1.4 Mitigation Methods for Dislodged Manhole Covers............................................... 1-7 1.5 History of Manhole Events...................................................................................... 1-9 1.5.1 Other Studies Relating to Manhole Events............................................ 1-10 1.6 Industry Research Regarding Manhole Event Mitigation.................................... 1-10 Section 2 Recommendations ............................................................................... 2-1 2.1 Recommendation 1: Definition of Manhole Events ............................................... 2-1 2.2 Recommendation 2: Inspection and Maintenance Practices................................ 2-2 2.3 Recommendation 3: Splicing Logs......................................................................... 2-3 2.4 Recommendation 4: Failure Analysis and Trends................................................. 2-4 2.5 Recommendation 5: Data Collection and Reporting ............................................. 2-5 2.6 Recommendation 6: Inter-Company Cooperation................................................. 2-6 2.7 Recommendation 7: Outreach ............................................................................... 2-6 Section 3 NSTAR ................................................................................................... 3-1 3.1 Underground Systems............................................................................................ 3-1 3.1.1 Design and Integrity of the Underground System ................................... 3-1 3.1.2 Underground Distribution System Metrics............................................... 3-5 3.2 Manhole Maintenance and Inspection Practices................................................... 3-6 3.3 Manhole Event Records and Trends ..................................................................... 3-7 Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution, Inc. Power Technologies International i Contents 3.4 Causes of Dislodged Manhole Covers................................................................... 3-9 3.5 Practices to Anticipate/Mitigate Future Manhole Events ..................................... 3-10 3.6 Conclusions........................................................................................................... 3-12 Section 4 National Grid ......................................................................................... 4-1 4.1 Underground Systems............................................................................................ 4-1 4.1.1 Design and Integrity of the Underground System ................................... 4-1 4.1.2 Radial 4 kV and 13.8 kV Underground Systems..................................... 4-3 4.1.3 Underground Distribution System Metrics............................................... 4-4 4.2 Manhole Maintenance and Inspection Practices................................................... 4-5 4.3 Manhole Event Records and Trends ..................................................................... 4-5 4.4 Causes of Dislodged Manhole Covers................................................................... 4-7 4.5 Practices to Anticipate/Mitigate Future Manhole Events ....................................... 4-8 4.6 Conclusions............................................................................................................. 4-9 Section 5 WMECo .................................................................................................. 5-1 5.1 Underground Systems............................................................................................ 5-1 5.1.1 Design and Integrity of the Underground System ................................... 5-1 5.1.2 Underground Distribution System Metrics............................................... 5-4 5.2 Manhole Maintenance and Inspection Practices................................................... 5-5 5.3 Manhole Event Records and Trends ..................................................................... 5-5 5.4 Causes of Dislodged Manhole Covers................................................................... 5-7 5.5 Practices to Anticipate/Mitigate Future Manhole Events ....................................... 5-7 5.6 Conclusions............................................................................................................. 5-8 Section 6 Unitil....................................................................................................... 6-1 6.1 Underground Systems............................................................................................ 6-1 6.1.1 Design and Integrity of the Underground System ................................... 6-1 6.1.2 Underground Distribution System Metrics............................................... 6-2 6.2 Manhole Maintenance and Inspection Practices................................................... 6-3 6.3 Manhole Event Records and Trends ..................................................................... 6-4 6.4 Causes of Dislodged Manhole Covers................................................................... 6-4 6.5 Practices to Anticipate/Mitigate Future Manhole Events ....................................... 6-4 6.6 Conclusions............................................................................................................. 6-5 Appendix A Underground Electric Distribution Systems .................................A-1 Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution, Inc. ii Power Technologies International Contents A.1 Radial Systems .......................................................................................................A-1 A.2 Low-Voltage Network Secondary Systems ...........................................................A-4 A.3 URD Systems..........................................................................................................A-9 Appendix B Forms and Checklists......................................................................B-1 B.1 Repair Priority Checklist..........................................................................................B-2 B.2 Splicing Log.............................................................................................................B-3 B.3 Failure Investigation Checklist................................................................................B-4 B.4 Manhole Event Data Collection Checklist and Summary Analysis.......................B-6 B.5 Manhole Inspection Checklist.................................................................................B-7 B.6 Standard Information For All Events Involving Dislodged Manhole Covers .......B-11 B.7 Outreach - Manhole Survey of Non-jurisdictional Utility Operators.....................B-12 Appendix C Historical Manhole Event Records.................................................C-1 Appendix D Detailed Work Plan and Schedule ..................................................D-1 Appendix E Data Request.....................................................................................E-1 Appendix F Interview Meetings............................................................................ F-1 Appendix G Monthly Project Reports..................................................................G-1 G.1 June 2005............................................................................................................... G-1 G.2 July 2005 ................................................................................................................ G-2 Appendix H References ........................................................................................H-1 Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution, Inc. Power Technologies International iii Legal Notice This document was prepared by Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution, Inc., Power Technologies International (Siemens PTI), solely for the benefit of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications & Energy. Neither Siemens PTI,