Outages of electric power supply resulting from cable failures Boston Edison Company system

• Main Author: None
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: 24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION; ELECTRIC CABLES; FAILURES; HVAC SYSTEMS; OUTAGES; HVDC SYSTEMS; MASSACHUSETTS; POWER DISTRIBUTION; UNDERGROUND POWER TRANSMISSION; URBAN AREAS; AC SYSTEMS; CABLES; CONDUCTOR DEVICES; DC SYSTEMS; ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT; EQUIPMENT; NORTH AMERICA; NORTH ATLANTIC REGION; POWER SYSTEMS; POWER TRANSMISSION; USA; Back Bay; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5083196; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5083196; https://doi.org/10.2172/5083196

Factual data are provided regarding 5 electric power supply interruptions that occurred in the Boston Metropolitan area during April to June, 1979. Common to all of these outages was the failure of an underground cable as the initiating event, followed by multiple equipment failures. There was significant variation in the voltage ratings and types of cables which failed. The investigation was unable to delineate a single specific Boston Edison design operating or maintenance practice that could be cited as the cause of the outages. After reviewing the investigative report the following actions were recommended: the development and implementation of a plan to eliminate the direct current cable network; develop a network outage restoration plan; regroup primary feeder cables wherever possible to minimize the number of circuits in manholes, and to separate feeders to high load density areas; develop a program to detect incipient cable faults; evaluate the separation of the north and south sections of Back Bay network into separate networks; and, as a minimum, install the necessary facilities to make it possible to re-energize one section without interfering with the other; and re-evaluate the cathodic protection scheme where necessary. (LCL)