Electrical Bus Duct

Proactive preventative maintenance, per industry standards, is essential to any asset life extension program. However, many isophase bus duct systems lack accessibility inside the enclosure for easy inspection and planned maintenance, endangering the entire power generation system. Commonly found issues include cracked insulators, water intrusion, debris, dust/dirt build up, and loose, incorrect, or missing hardware. EBl’s aftermarket welded inspection ports are designed specifically for isophase applications and can be installed in any OEM bus design. They provide easy access to the internal isolated phase bus enclosure and insulators for necessary visual inspection and cleaning to maintain the health of your system critical electrical components and mitigate opportunities for a forced outage.

Outdoor bus systems that are subject to drastic temperature fluctuations due to climate location, thermal cycling, de-energized/re-energized due to an outage, and/or systems that are not properly sealed can suffer significate condensation build up and water intrusion, which left undetected, can increase chances for a catastrophic failure. EBI’s after-market dry air pressurization systems provide slightly positive air flow to replace the moist air inside the enclosure and is the industry standard and preferred method to combat condensation that can form in isophase bus systems.

In outdoor bus installations subject to drastic climate conditions, drain plugs are commonly used at the low end of the bus run to allow excess condensation to escape from the enclosure. Drain plugs can be a simple, manually operated drain or contain a valve allowing liquid to escape while holding air within the enclosure. They are commonly used on isophase, non-seg, and segregated bus duct systems.

Expansion bellows are an essential part of the bus duct system. They are designed to compensate for expansion, movement, and vibrations that occur during normal operation. However, the increased frequency and level of cycling caused by the surge of intermittent renewable generation have significantly shortened the typical lifespan of many critical components, including metal expansion bellows. The old original metal bellows will experience thermal fatigue, begin to crack, and will eventually begin to pull away from the enclosure leaving the bus subject to foreign material intrusion. EBI’s proprietary 3-piece expansion bellow can easily be installed on existing isophase bus systems without modifications to the conductor.

When your plant’s electrical bus duct components become degraded, even something as simple as gasketing, can easily wreak havoc on the system if not identified and properly corrected in a timely manner. Gasket should be replaced as needed in order to properly seal the system and mitigate opportunities for moisture and foreign material intrusion.