Project requirements
Cobra Structures, our customer and a North American fabric provider, requested an Arc Flash Power System Study to be developed for a wash bay installation at a mining site in the Canadian Prairies. The purpose of the study was to ensure both in Utility-fed and in generator-fed scenarios, the incident energy will not exceed the required level and the protective device settings will be selected properly to allow for an immediate trip on fault to minimize the risk for the site personnel.
Solutions
Engineering Solutions developed a complex Power System Study which consisted of the following parts:
- Power Flow Study;
- Short Circuit Study;
- Protective Device Coordination Study;
- Arc Flash Analysis & labels.
Project outcome
Based on the Power System Study produced it became obvious one of the circuit breakers would not trip on an Arc fault at the distribution panel bus. Therefore, the replacement circuit breaker has been proposed and procured. As a result, the new breaker installed would effectively trip on Arc fault, FCT (fault clearing time) has been limited to levels allowed by the Canadian safety standards. Arc Flash labels have been created for equipment to indicate the Arc Flash hazard and level of PPE required.
The Power System Study has been well accepted by the customer and the site team, which accepted the breaker change proposed and the wash bay installation has been successfully powered up.