The Buist Testing department thrives and excels at their preventative maintenance programs, but without the planning and dedication from the client, these programs could never succeed.
Buist had our annual shutdown this past month with one of our most dedicated and long-term customers. Buist and this client have worked together for the past 14 years, on multiple projects and day to day service calls. In this most recent preventative maintenance shutdown, 22 members of the Buist Outdoor Utilities, Service, Medium Voltage, and Testing teams worked together to complete the scope of work in a single day. “Outages like this really showcase the teamwork and strength of a company like ours” states Department Manager Dave Houseman. “It is purely due to our team, ALL IN mentality, expertise, equipment, and work ethic that we are able to complete outages such as this with such success.”
There were (5) different jobs completed during this shutdown. The first job consisted of maintenance and various planned repairs to the client’s substation, primary pad mount transformers, primary pad mount switches, capacitor banks, and bus plugs and switches in several different buildings. There were repairs made on medium voltage overhead, as well as other routine medium voltage overhead inspections and cleaning.
The second and third jobs both were installations of one new pad mount transformer and one replacement transformer. Buist performed acceptance testing and put remote sample ports on the transformers prior to installation. The team pulled base line fluid samples, installed nitrogen blankets, and provided reports for both transformers. They completed and installed new parts that were required and updated the electrical one lines for as build files.
The fourth and fifth jobs required providing and installing surge protection on (2) services, and providing maintenance and testing on various bolt lock switches. Buist removed an existing 3000 amp bolt lock switch and provided and installed a refurbished and tested 3000 amp bolt lock switch. The team re-terminated secondary wiring and re-installed (3) fuses. This also consisted of performing baseline functionality tests to include insulation resistance, contact resistance, ground fault test, and functional operation.
This large scale outage was a success for both the Buist team as well as the client and was completed in less time than what was planned. The team provided detailed testing reports of all activity and made any recommendations that were necessary.
