Reclosing After Lockout On One shot

[Booger1944]

Our new Manager has called a meeting tomorrow to let us know about his new policy. He wants to start closing in a circuit by SCADA,that has locked out while on one shot, without patrolling the line, as long as the crew that had the clearance is in the clear. He claims that how it was done where he came from. I know the local Co-op did this, one time, only to find out a tree crew had dropped a tree on a phase and it was down. Luckily the tree trimmers were in the clear. I have worked on a lot of different systems and never heard of anyone else closing in a locked out breaker with no due diligence. How do you do it?

[LEAFMAN]

Absolutely not without patrolling the line.

[Pootnaigle]

We never put em on One shot unless someone was working behind one.I kinda dont see the purpose of a recloser thats permanently on one shot.But to answer your question I dont think its a grand idea to reclose one without patrolling the line first.My biggest concern would be a downed wire subjected to a backfeed condition endangering the general public.

[Booger1944]

Our system is mostly urban and compact so we have very few reclosers on the line. Our circuits are so short we can patrol them in just a few minutes. This past Friday a crew had a one-shot on the substation circuit breaker while they rebuilt a capacitor bank with new xarms and cutouts. The circuit locked out due to a fault somewhere else on the circuit and the manager wanted the breaker reclosed after making the sure the crew that had asked for the one shot was clear of the line, but without troubleshooting the rest of the circuit. We are going to receive a written policy tomorrow stating that this is what we are to do from now on. I have visions of a bus full of kids hitting a pole somewhere on a one shot circuit, knocking down the lines and it being re-energized on them and a fire crew trying to save a few minutes of patrolling time. The new manager claims this was SOP where he came from, but I’ve never heard of such a thing and wanted to hear from others before I go to my meeting tomorrow.

[electric squirrel]

Tell him to go **** himself,,,,,simple stupidity to reclose without checkn the circut.

[thrasher]

In 30 years in the trade at three companies I only know of one time when the line was put back on without patrolling. That was when the crew that had requested one-shot called in and said they had had an old jumper get away from the two men cutting it down and it arced phase to phase. So the cause of the lockout was known. BTW this was in the days of company all cotton rule and no ones clothes caught fire although both men had a good "sunburn" from the flash. Fortunately that was all.
In summary closing a line that locked out (one shot or four shot) without a known and cleared cause is dumb.

[lewy]

Obviously you would contact all crews who were under that hold off first, but here is where I might differ a little with you. What happens when a feeder is not on hold off & it trips, it automatically recloses, maybe 3 times before it locks out. I do agree 100% if that feeder locks out when not on hold off, you patrol before closing.

[rcdallas]

Whenever we do mainline work we must notify the dispatcher of what we are doing, how long we plan to be there, etc. If the feeder locksout the dispatcher will try it one time unless they know we're working on it.

[Fiberglass Cowboy]

We don't do that as a general practice at my utility. It would be a MAJOR liability. The first time he has someone close back in on a car accident victim and/or the fire department and paramedics rescuing the victims, and someone else gets hurt or killed because of your companies neglect; LOOK OUT. Not only will your company be sued and people could and probably would lose their jobs, but they could also be brought up on CRIMINAL CHARGES by some way of neglect / endangering the public. Also it sounds like your manager wants to "win medals" so to speak, by reducing outage times. RAM AND JAM, BOYS!!! JUST THROW HER IN!!! Obviously he doesn't hold safety in a high regard. Just for Caidi and Saidi statistics, for your states public service commission. Just to make his area of responsibility at your company look good to the upper management, by saying his outage times are "minimal". Sounds really "weasly" to me.

[Hambone]

I have been working behind a recloser before with a 1 shot and it locked out from something else and the dispatcher called and I tell him " men and equipment are in the clear " and they bring the feeder back on and this is all with-in minutes of it locking out. There could have been a bird, squirrel, bad L.a. miles down the road or even a lot of load on the feeder can do it too. They just want the f-ing meters turning.