One of the most dangerous tasks when working with 15-kV circuit breakers is the racking of the circuit breakers for clearances. In the past, workers would stand right in front of the switchgear to perform this hazardous task. If the circuit breaker was closed at all, it might blow up.

Brian Anderson, energy operations superintendent at Colorado Springs Utilities, will present a session at the Finepoint Circuit Breaker Conference in October on how older switchgear can be racked more safely, by moving the worker 30 feet away from the breaker.

Newer switchgear has actually been engineered to be safer, with arc resistance and other safety features. But it’s not always economical to immediately replace all switchgear at a company, especially if it has useful life left.

So Colorado Springs Utilities and Powell Industries, Houston, Texas, developed a remote racking solution for all of Colorado Springs’ 15-kV switchgear.

Anderson said that the system is a motor at the end of an umbilical cord. “So we’ve taken the employees and we have them standing 30 feet away at the end of a cord, racking the breaker. If something does happen, they will not be in harm’s way,” he said.

In the conference session, Anderson will present a case where employees were using the remote racking solution and the circuit breaker blew up. The workers were not harmed because they were out of the line of fire, 30 feet away.

Currently, there is no industry safety standard for racking of circuit breakers. Different safety methods are available, including the wearing of personal protective equipment. But workers would still be in harm’s way in that case.

“We’re actually unique in the case that we’ve implemented this program to remote-rack all circuit breakers,” Anderson said of Colorado Springs. “We are also smaller than some companies, though.”

Safety was the driving factor behind this solution, and it’s the reason for the session. “It’s about looking at ways to keep the employees safe,” Anderson said. “We want to send people home the way they came in or better at the end of the day.”

Anderson also said that the workforce is changing and “engineering the safety into the task” was important.