Windmills were once seen on almost every farm and ranch in the American heartland. The expansion of electrical service and the use of electric pumps brought an end to the windmill era, but visitors can still see dozens of these classic devices at the American Wind Power Center and Museum in Lubbock, Texas. Around 90 windmills of various sizes and types are maintained inside the museum’s massive building in Lubbock, on the Texas panhandle.

Executive director Coy Harris says machines that harvest wind power make a lot of sense in this part of west Texas.

“We see the wind blow a lot around here and it is a shame to just see it blowing dust,” he said. “We might as well do something with it.”
The Wind Power Center obtains most of its operating power from a wind turbine atop a 50-meter-tall tower in its windmill park. On good, windy days the turbine often produces more electricity than the center needs, so the excess is sold to the local power company. On days when the turbine is not producing enough power, the center draws electricity from the local grid.
But since wind is intermittent, Coy Harris says cities and towns cannot rely on wind exclusively.
“They are going to still have to have coal-fired plants and everything else because people still want to have electricity even when the wind is not blowing,” he said.

American Wind Power Center Development Director Glenn Patton ays wind-generated electricity has great potential, but it is partly limited by out-of-date infrastructure.
“The problem is we have a grid system in certain areas that goes back to the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s and that grid system cannot handle the power of a wind turbine,” he said.
But wind farms are being successfully operated in many parts of west Texas including a cotton processing plant near Lubbock. There are also plans to develop wind farms on the Gulf of Mexico coast, another windy area not far from major urban zones like Houston and San Antonio.
“The places where you do see wind farms, either they are in a good area and have access to a major grid system or you will start seeing some wind turbines that actually will power or provide power to a particular manufacturing plant,” he said.
But plans are under way here in Texas and elsewhere to connect wind farms in windy zones to grids in far away cities where demand is high.  

T. Boone Pickens, who made many billions of dollars in the oil and gas industry, is investing in a large wind farm to be built in the Texas panhandle. Pickens estimates that more than 20 percent of the electrical power used in the United States in coming years could be produced by wind power.
His goal is to connect his turbines in west Texas to the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area grid, but at least part of his plan has been sidetracked by the recent drop in oil and gas prices that make wind power less economical.
One of the big drawbacks of wind power is that its output cannot be regulated the way a plant fired by natural gas or coal can. Researchers are looking for effective ways to store excess energy for later use.
Glenn Patton says inventors more than a century ago developed efficient windmills using basic, but elegant mechanisms. He says such innovation today may make wind power more viable as part of a basket of renewable sources of energy to power America’s future.

During this quarter, demand for almost all product sectors has been in red with a few exceptions like HT motors, power cables, power transformers, HT circuit breakers and conductors. The government financed program of generation capacity addition and associated transmission largely drives continued growth in these products, according to IEEMA. HT Motors growth is attributed to developments in core sectors like petrochemicals and hydropower generation.

In third quarter, demand for products like LT motors (especially up to 225 frame size), LV switchgear products, LT capacitors and energy meters have gone south sharply from the positive growth till last quarter.

Although government’s thrust will continue in capacity addition resulting in demand creation for high voltage products, according to Sunil More, director general, IEEMA, tough times are expected by the industry in view of decline in export orders and growing imports coupled with fear of dumping of low voltage products and freeze on policy front by government for next 4 months.

Growth index of major electrical equipment

An electric switchboard is a device that directs electricity from one source to another. It is an assembly of panels, each of which contain switches that allow electricity to be redirected. The operator is protected from electrocution by safety switches and fuses.

There can also be controls for the supply of electricity to the switchboard, coming from a generator or bank of electrical generators, especially frequency control of AC power and load sharing controls, plus gauges showing frequency and perhaps a synchroscope. The amount of power going into a switchboard must always equal to the power going out to the loads.

Inside the switchboard there is a bank of busbars – generally wide strips of copper to which the switchgear is connected. These act to allow the flow of large currents through the switchboard, and are generally bare and supported by insulators. Power to a switchboard should first be isolated before a switchboard is opened for maintenance, as the bare Busbars represent a severe electrocution hazard. Working on a live switchboard is rarely necessary, and if it is done then precautions should be taken, such as standing on a thick rubber mat, the use of gloves etc.

An important function performed by a substation is switching, which is the connecting and disconnecting of transmission lines or other components to and from the system. Switching events may be “planned” or “unplanned”.

A transmission line or other component may need to be deenergized for maintenance or for new construction; for example, adding or removing a transmission line or a transformer.

To maintain reliability of supply, no company ever brings down its whole system for maintenance. All work to be performed, from routine testing to adding entirely new substations, must be done while keeping the whole system running.

Perhaps more importantly, a fault may develop in a transmission line or any other component. Some examples of this: a line is hit by lightning and develops an arc, or a tower is blown down by a high wind. The function of the substation is to isolate the faulted portion of the system in the shortest possible time.

There are two main reasons: a fault tends to cause equipment damage; and it tends to destabilize the whole system. For example, a transmission line left in a faulted condition will eventually burn down, and similarly, a transformer left in a faulted condition will eventually blow up. While these are happening, the power drain makes the system more unstable. Disconnecting the faulted component, quickly, tends to minimize both of these problems.

Transpower’s $99 million upgrade to its Otahuhu substation is scheduled for completion early in 2010.

It is on the same site as the current substation, which failed in 2006, and will be physically separated from the existing switchyard to minimise vulnerability and improve its reliability.

The Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed an appeal from the Major Electricity Users’ Group against the Electricity Commission’s approval of the upgrade.

In August last year the commission confirmed a decision to approve a Transpower plan to modernise the substation. Transpower proposes to build a new, separate, enclosed high-reliability 220kV switchyard on the site.

The users’ group sought a judicial review of the decision which was dismissed by the High Court in March.

The group argued in the appeal that the commission got its analysis wrong and failed to evaluate cheaper alternatives properly.

Existing and new circuit connections will be diversified between the two switchyard. This means any major failure in one of the switchyards would not result in a total loss of electricity supply to areas that the Otahuhu substation feeds – the majority of Auckland – as happened for six hours two years ago when a D-shackle broke.

Substation Products Corporation is a international supplier of Substation structures and electrical equipment.  With over 70 years combined experience and 1000+ Substation around the world, we want to compete for your next substation project.  We specialize in steel and aluminum, tube, beam, and lattice type THE Substation and can custom design a structure to meet your needs. Our Substation range from 2400 V up to 345 kV.

An electrical the substation is a subsidiary station of an electricity generation, transmission and distribution system where voltage is transformed from high to low or the reverse using transformers. Electric power may flow through several substations between generating plant and consumer, and may be changed in voltage in several steps.

A substation that has a step-up transformer increases the voltage while decreasing the current, while a step-down transformer decreases the voltage while increasing the current for domestic and commercial distribution.  the substation comes from the days before the distribution system became a grid. The first substations were connected to only one power station where the generator was housed, and were  the substation of that power station.

tellhowdl power is  the  largest  manufacturer of  Disconnectors in India with over 7000 installations to its credit. The range of Disconnectors include Centre Break, Double Break, Pantograph and Vertical Break Series from 36kV to 800 kV. Disconnectors are supplied with different mechanisms namely – Manual, Manual Geared or Electric Motor operated. Insulators of Solid Core type, Terminal Connectors of Rigid or Expansion type and Support Structures can be supplied as optional items.

tellhowdl Power is the only Company in India who have successfully type tested the Disconnectors at International test laboratory – KEMA, Holland twice. The type tests conducted include the Ice Breaking test for High Altitude installation of these Disconnectors.

We hope you will find this website informative and user friendly, however

An electrical substation is a subsidiary station of an electricity generation, transmission and distribution system where voltage is transformed from high to low or the reverse using transformers. Electric power may flow through several substations between generating plant and consumer, and may be changed in voltage in several steps.

A substation that has a step-up transformer increases the voltage while decreasing the current, while a step-down transformer decreases the voltage while increasing the current for domestic and commercial distribution. The word substation comes from the days before the distribution system became a grid. The first substations were connected to only one power station where the generator was housed, and were subsidiaries of that power station.

The successful candidate will:• Be in possession of an applicable Electrical qualification;
• Have job related skills, knowledge and experience of projects within an electrical engineering environment, combined with hands-on experience in this type of business; A skilled Project Manager is required to take responsibility for the engineering design and contract execution of medium voltage switchgear projects with the main focus on MV Service projects.Key accountabilities for this position
• Be computer literate in at least MS Office, Word, Excel, Projects;
• Very disciplined in following ABB corporate and Switchgear policies and regulations. It will be expected from the candidate to work overtime from time to time to complete Urgent tasks;
• Be a logical and analytical thinker, with excellent planning skills;
• Self motivated, and a team player;
• Have good management, communication and interpersonal skills;
• Be well organised, able to work under pressure and to use initiative;
• Be able to effectively deal with colleagues, superiors and customers at all levels.