micro-air easy start

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
The eleven thousand horsepower 3800 volt three phase motor at the refinery was a real trip when starting...

General notification went out hours in advance to all refinery process units to minimize usage. PG&E Pacific Gas and Electric boosted nominal distribution voltages to achieve 260 volts phase to phase, a few minutes before startup.

Then right out of a movie scene in a prison when "The Chair" dimmed the lights in prisoner cells, voltage slumped by 10-15 volts phase to phase.

I forgot the motor-start time limit. It was something like 15 seconds. The stator resonance shook a three foot thick unit concrete pad. About a third of the time the isobutane compressor failed to cycle. The motor was shut down and had to cool for seven hours before a re-start was attempted.

The start switch used a pump. A U-Handle with a foot long grip prong. About a dozen pumps in all. The contact lever had to be pushed up and with a BANG the contactor closed. The smell of ozone permeated the air.

Shell ended up purchasing the PG&E brick generating plant located on Shell Avenue. 28 Megawatts.

After seeing this, regular motor starting shrank in perspective :)

Not tryin' to change the subject, but that describes pretty closely my vasectomy experience. :B One moment laying there with florescent lights shining down, a Jackson Brown cassette playing over the doctor provided head phones, then the lights dim, the music sloooowwws, there is an arc of light, a puff of smoke, the smell of burning flesh, then everything returns to normal, except of course the Valium's effect wore off instantly. And I still had one more to go.... :E