News Flash Home
The original item was published from 7/13/2021 1:22:59 PM to 4/17/2022 12:00:01 AM.

News Flash

City News & Public Notices

Posted on: July 13, 2021

[ARCHIVED] Nelson Hydro Turns Off Automatic Reclosers

Recloser Nelson Hydro


For the safety of our community,  customers and our forests, Nelson Hydro has turned off the automatic reclosers on our distribution lines as a wildfire safety measure. 
Automatic reclosers can quickly restore power after outages, but they can also multiply the fire risk from damaged lines as they produce sparks by design. During times when the fire danger rating is high to extreme, the reclose setting is turned off to avoid the potential of starting interface fires. 
This results in more frequent and longer outages since, without the reclosers, crews need to respond to patrol the lines and manually restore power once the issue has been identified.
WHAT IS A RECLOSER?
In electric power distribution, automatic circuit reclosers (ACRs) are a class of switchgear that is designed for use on overhead electricity distribution networks to detect and interrupt momentary faults. Also known as reclosers or auto reclosers, ACRs are essentially high voltage rated circuit breakers with integrated current and voltage sensors and a protection relay, optimized for use as an overhead network distribution protection asset. 
For overhead distribution networks, the majority of faults are transient, such as lightning strikes, surges or foreign objects (branches, birds) coming into contact with the exposed distribution lines. By this logic, 80% of outages can be resolved by a simple re-close operation as they make quick work of many line faults.
The recloser detects a power surge, momentarily interrupts electricity flow, and then automatically recloses its contacts to restart flow down the affected line.
Reclosers usually try restarting a line two to three times before giving up and “locking out” a line. Sometimes multiple attempts are needed to do the job, such as when high-temperature electrical arcing at the site of the fault burns away hung trees or tree limbs. 
Under the wrong conditions, such arcing and ignition can obviously spark a fire.
We thank you for your understanding as we strive to keep everyone safe this summer.
In photo: The rectangular boxes are the reclosers.

Recloser Nelson Hydro

Facebook Twitter Email

Other News in City News & Public Notices

4944F8B5-CD35-4F52-9396-15C68F9E4D3D

Water Quality Advisory Rescinded

Posted on: May 10, 2023
Council Highlights Social Media FB (Instagram Post (Square))

Council Highlights for April 2023

Posted on: April 24, 2023
Strategic Plan 2023 (Instagram Post (Square)) (1)

OCP Advisory Committee - APPLY TODAY

Posted on: April 14, 2023
2023 BudgetOpen House

Budget Open House - Join us!

Posted on: March 23, 2023
Council Highlights Social Media FB (1)

March 2023 - Council Highlights

Posted on: March 21, 2023
Carmen Proctor Bridge

A Message from Mayor & Council

Posted on: March 17, 2023
gyropool_TimDavis

Notice of Work - Gyro Park Bridge Removal

Posted on: February 14, 2023
Notice to Public

Notice of Work from Public Works

Posted on: January 11, 2023
How do you manage your food waste Survey 2022

SURVEY: How do you manage your food waste?

Posted on: November 17, 2022
Leaf Removal

Leaf Collection in the Downtown Core

Posted on: November 16, 2022
Nelson_City_Council_019_2022 Group Photo

Meet our new Council!

Posted on: November 10, 2022
Nelson waterfront with pier

August 26, 2022 Pier Update

Posted on: August 26, 2022
December 2017

City of Nelson Newsletter - December 2017

Posted on: December 21, 2017