POWER FAULT DETECTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22318, 16 January 1936, Page 6

POWER FAULT DETECTION

PROPOSALS IN MELBOURNE PRESENT WIRELESS SYSTEM Engineers of the Melbourne Electricity Commission believe that experiments which are being made will lead to the establishment of an instant breakdown detect'or at the offices of the commission in Flinders Street. The detector will record immediately, through a system of a power failure in any house, building, or out-of-door light served by the commission, and will automatically isolate the breakdown. When the detector is developed'its installation will mean the abandoning of the system that is giving efficient service now. Au example of the satisfactory work being done by the commission's present wireless' detector system was given recently when a resident of Camberwell reported by telephone that his electric lights had failed. Thirty seconds after he had hung up his receiver one of the commission's repair officers arrived to rectify the trouble. The officer had been informed by wireless from the control room at Elinders Street while the resident was still explaining that his house was in darkness. The, control room is the nerve centre of the commission's distribution system Its officer'in charge has only to alance at a wall plan, with different coloured indicators scattered over its face, and he can tell how the complete distribution system is operating. The plan does not tell immediately when trouble occurs, but it is toward the attainment of this that experiments arc being made/' Until then wireless and a comprehensive telephone and patrol system keep the control room operators in constant touch with the behaviour of the maze of wires, cables, and sub-stations necessary to distribute a heavy power "load" to more than 150,000 consumers.' Behind the operation of this system there is a complexity of power supply operations before the electricity reaches the distribution stage. After generation at Yallourn tho power is "stepped up" from 11,000 volts to 1:12.000 volts for transmission to metropolitan terminal stations. There the current is "stepped down" to 22,000 volts on its way to the principal sub-stations, where it is reduced to 6600 volts. Later its voltage is reduced at hundreds of small stations'to 230 for domestic use and 400 for industrial purposes.