There is high risk to life of humans in electric power distribution systems, Danger to human life’s, damage to infrastructure etc, the reason for all these issues is Electric arc, the reason is not having enough awareness, negligence, poor maintenance, insulation failures, electrical spikes, animal interferences etc. Arc flash is a major electrical hazards where 10kA /480v arc flash = 8 dynamite sticks, there have een number of incidents reported daily around the globe for damage to human and systems due to electrical arc flash. So what looks to first and formost solution is PPE personal protection equipments to be used in these areas, there is no technology as such to prevent this as of now, conventionally circuit breakers, fuses, arc resistant switchgears, crowbar systems were and are being used which fully does not eliminate this issue.
Recently in emtech India event participated by GE demonstrated their innovation of eliminating this arc flash by detecting through a optical sensor at which instant the large arc current is transferred to containment using a ablative plasma gun. I just felt like sharing this to our Technology world.
The performance was tremendous with 15x faster arc transfer within 200microsec, 20% energy absorption no dead shorting, reusable containment which is cost effective. GE termed it as GE Arc Vault protection system and video demonstrated its capabilities. Not sure if any other such products have been developed in market ? or only GE is sole designer, let me know your coments if any on same !!!
