The Anguilla Electricity Company Ltd. (ANGLEC) concluded the extensive exercise of installing 5 automatic circuit recloser units throughout the island.
The introduction of reclosers was one of ANLGEC’s Transmission and Distribution (T&D) Department 2017 initiatives. Although two units were successfully installed prior to the passing of Hurricane Irma, the project was put on hold as we worked to restore electricity services to the island.
The program resumed with much anticipation earlier this year with promising benefits for ANGLEC and customers island-wide.
What is an Automatic Circuit Recloser Unit (a.k.a. “Recloser”)?
A Recloser is a device used world-wide by utilities as electricity distribution circuit protection. Reclosers help to keep infrastructure and communities safe as self-controlled high-voltage electric devices that automatically open (disrupts) and close (reconnects) the flow of electricity under preset operational sequences. In most situations, it will allow for quicker restoration of power for outages caused by transient faults (for example momentary tree contact, bird or other animal contact, lightning strike, conductors clashing, etc.).
Like a circuit breaker at your home, a recloser shuts off power when there is an accident or a fault on ANGLEC’s grid. However, unlike circuit breakers which have external controls to relay commands for opening and reclosing, ANLGEC’s new automatic circuit reclosers have built-in controls that allow for similar functions.
How does it work?
Through preset operational sequences, once a fault is detected the recloser will open and wait a period of seconds to allow an opportunity for the fault to clear. If the fault is intermittent and no fault is detected after the pre-set time, the recloser will automatically restore power to the affected areas. In a situation where the fault still exists, the recloser will remain open and power will remain disrupted in that area until ANGLEC’s teams arrive on site to investigate. In the event that the recloser does not detect the fault it provides added security with a reclaim time of approximately 15 minutes. This means that after closing, the device will look for a fault within that window of time before resetting. If no fault occurs within this time, the reclosers will remain shut and resume the original settings. In situations where the fault returns within the reclaim time the reclosers will open again and go to lockout mode until the issue is resolved by ANGLEC’s teams.
In the instance of a serious fault, like downed power lines and broken poles, the recloser units are intelligent enough to keep the power in the area suppressed. This enhances our safety and minimizes the affected areas during an outage. As a result, ANGLEC’s teams will know exactly where to look on the feeder for the fault source with the section already isolated by the recloser. These features shorten outage times even in the event of a more significant fault type.
For additional protection and mitigating unnecessary wear and tear to the reclosers due to an instance of continuous activation, as in the case with bad weather, a frequency counter is enabled. This limits the number of closures & openings in an hour.
These new devices are a significant addition to ANGLEC’s grid as currently, all intermittent faults require the response and intervention of a team of lineman to restore power. ANGLEC is proud to provide this new level of service to Anguilla.
“All the supervisors at T&D played a role in the selection of the reclosers. I played the leading role by gathering information of the technology available, disseminating that information to all, organizing conference calls between the supplier, providing protection settings, organizing training, programming the reclosers, organizing the installation schedule with Ivor Ible, T&D Superintendent and Lincoln Hodge, Lines Construction Supervisor, who did the installation and liaised with Terone Hodge, Consumer Services Engineer for internal radio communication so that we can communicate with the reclosers from the station. I am proud to see ANGLEC embracing technology that can help improve its reliability and security” – Mrs. Mariscia Roach-Grant, ANGLEC’s T&D Project Engineer.
By improving responsiveness and reliability, ANGLEC’s teams can be more effective in their field assessments and restorations.
Over the coming months, the reclosers will be incrementally activated. During this time, their performance will be monitored to ensure that the devices are functioning optimally. During this time, outages may be required to conduct the necessary tests to fully integrate these devices in which instances we ask for your continued patience and support.
As always, we urge the public to NEVER go near or tamper with downed wires or electrical lines during an outage or any other circumstance. Doing so is extremely dangerous and in some unfortunate cases, fatal. Our goal, at all times, is to keep our community safe. For this reason, infrastructure enhancements like our new recloser units are a celebrated.
For further updates and real time developments LIKE our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/AnguillaElectricity .
– Press Release
