Hi guys a couple of weeks ago I was looking on Google maps to try to work out a future planned trip for when lockdown is done anyhow I went onto satellite view which is basically an areal view of wherever your looking at. Part of my search I saw an areal view of our local grid substation at chickerell on the foto there was what looked like very large cotton reels in the sub I was curious what they could be I hink they are very large chokes for voltage balancing there are also some square objects right next to them which I assume are capacitors not sure what voltage they run at but looks like 230/400 Kv does this sound about right? Incidentally I sorted out my rout for my future trip
looking here I see an open air switching matrix, taking the lines from the pylons left and right feeds,. Am I am I right to assume the things you are interested in are on the southern extension to the main gravelled HV section ?
I'm not sure what they are either, if they are a grounding load or reactors of some kind.
Chickerell is listed here as a dual substation 400kV site.
On this sheet we see the text beneath for the 60 and 225 MVAr that can be switched in or out as required.
Hi Typiod yes thats the beasts they are definitely odd looking things I've never seen them from this angle before which sub is this? It looks the same layout as chickerell with the cotton reels positioned away from everything else
I would guess that the "cotton reels" are air core shunt reactors and the rectangular blocks are capacitor banks. Could be used for a number of things but most likely voltage (reactive power) control of some flavour.
Not sure what the funky towers between them and the switch disconnectors are... I suspect that they're a little distorted by the image generation process (being tall towers with spindly details). By where it is I'd query circuit breaker arranged vertically but might be something more exotic.
Above my pay grade though so could be wrong on all of the above, but I do like being nosey at substations and would be interested if someone more informed had the right answer!
I reckon you could be right it looks like the cotton reels are connected in series with the white blocks the tall structures are a mystery as you say they may be circuit breakers we will never know unless someone on here comes up with the answer. I just noticed that in the foto switches are open so the devices aren't even in use I guess that they are switched in or out as required of course its impossible to tell what time of day this piccy was taken
of course its impossible to tell what time of day this piccy was taken
No its not, look at the length and direction of the shadows,and recall how the earth rotates thought the day. We know the orientation of the site.
(page two of this doc may help explain, substitute pylon for tree ... )
For a rough estimate of the time of year look at the vegetation. I'd say just before high noon as sun is slightly east of south but not by a lot, and between late spring and mid summer respectively.
