Power Substation Arc-Fault in Cornell, WI

This is a documentary of events that started at about 10:45 pm Tuesday March 10, 2009 in Cornell, WI. (Yes, I like to talk a lot, to explain what is happening.)

This video shows the effects of the arc fault on the town and our school, and the effect on the servers and network equipment I am charged with shepherding along and protecting from harm.

Freezing rain likely led to a buildup of ice on bare power-line wires causing them to sag down and get close to grounded metal supports, causing random sparking in the strong wind.

This started with a long drawn-out 5-second flickering and dimming of lights at the school was followed by total loss of power. I am the school network administrator working late once again, and just happened to be there to witness this.

I am surprised the power company allowed this constant flickering and sparking to drag on for nearly an hour before power was finally cut to the town. This had the potential to cause brownout failure to all sorts of equipment, though fortunately nothing was damaged at school the next day.

Surrounding areas immediately east of town were not affected after power was finally cut, so the substation with the arcing probably services only the city.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• arc
• spark
• power
• electric
• substation
• UPS
• server
• APC
• brownout

[poussin78640]

What are the fans that we still can hear after the battery has been depleted ?

[DMahalko]

The UPS does not totally discharge the batteries 100%. It saves a small amount of power to run its cooling fans at the end, before turning off.

[Anubis4815162342]

What model No. is that UPS? Also is that a 230V or a 110 Volt UPS?

-Anubis

[DMahalko]

This is the Smart UPS 3000 XL at 120v 30a. For the next size up, the voltage changes to 240v.

We have some older 120v hardware so the 240v UPS would not work without the APC step-down transformer option. But if you can go with the higher voltage only for everything, then it can be less expensive.

[poussin78640]

How do the UPS send the shutdown request to the servers ? it use network or usb/serial to do that ?

[DMahalko]

Most basic home APC UPS's only have serial or USB to connect to one computer. Business APC UPS's have an expansion slot for the management card.

There is also an option which allows remote control via a call-in phone line, to remotely turn it off or on, or check health when the network is down.

Go to Google and do a search for AP9630 or AP9618 ... it's an expensive option.

[twocvbloke]

We hardly ever get any fun electrical faults like that here in the UK, our systems are just too safe to flicker out... :(

As for the UPS, if it were me, I'd have knocked it off once the power went out the first time to prevent any future issues (like battery depletion), and just wait to see what happened with the power... :)

[DMahalko]

I have not been given authorization to do that. I am "just" the computer technology manager.

[poussin78640]

Why dind't you turned off the building circuit breaker to protects the equipements ? (when you say "I don't know why the compagny power has not killed power to school")

[javeline1234]

i used to live in cornell i guess about 10 years ago. i love that town, but i had to move back to TX.