Electrical Troubleshooting Quiz — May 17, 2022

Your company bought a closed manufacturing plant to expand existing production into it. An outside project manager is overseeing both of the equipment moves (old equipment moved to an equipment rebuilder, new equipment moved into the plant). The plan is to clear an area of old equipment, then set new equipment in that area. Once the new equipment is set, an evaluation of branch circuit requirements will be performed and then electrical work will be scheduled.

The project manager, who has a habit of saying, “This isn’t my first rodeo,” has also been assessing the feeders, even though it wasn’t written into the plan. She has had an electrician doing some rough calculations as things proceed. She sent you photos taken by the electrician at the service panels. Several show feeder cables with melted insulation and discolored (blued) conductors.

She wants you to determine what the causes might be and to prescribe a plan of action. Where do you start?

Electrical testing

It may be tempting to simply say it’s a load problem and those problems will self-solve with the equipment moves. Replace the damaged feeders, and you’re done. But a problem like this is indicative of many more problems yet to be discovered.

A similar feeder problem was discovered by a thermographer at an operating small engine plant, in 1995. Subsequent investigation revealed this plant to be the mother lode of Code violations. To this day, some who worked on that project believe this facility holds the record for sustaining the most Code violations without blowing up or burning up. Art. 110, 210, 215, 230, and 300 took heavy Code casualties, and Art. 250, Part V also earned a few Purple Hearts.

It’s an oversight that the plan for this plant did not start with an evaluation of the electrical infrastructure from the service connection through the branch circuit transformers and panels. That will need to be done as soon as it can be scheduled. If it is possible to delay moving equipment into the plant until this is done, that would allow this work to proceed more quickly.

Your best bet is to contact a couple of electrical testing firms that are certified by an industry association dedicated to electrical testing. Explain what your people found and ask them to make recommendations for uncovering problems. It may be that there are no more damaged feeders; if tests can show this with reasonable confidence, the time-savings and cost-savings will be huge. But if a failure bomb is lying in wait and a feeder fails or a transformer goes super nova upon startup, that’s going to delay the plant’s first day of operating. Perhaps by a very long time.

As it goes with these kinds of things, it’s tough to sell to management an extra investment in time and money when a plan is already in motion. Their risk aversion is far stronger for known scheduling delays than it is for potential ones. The problem is the potential delays can be enormous if not neutralized. One approach is to present management with a three-tier plan:

1. Tier One. Least expensive. Should find any gross defects, but will be unlikely to find impending failures. Reduces risk by 70% (or whatever number is appropriate).
2. Tier Two. Most cost-effective. Recommended by the testing firm. Will find gross defects, looming issues, and problems that can impede a smooth startup. Reduces risk by 95%.
3. Tier Three. Most comprehensive. Does everything that Tier Two does, but goes deeper. It will incur three extra days of delay. Reduces risk by 98%.

Obviously, you want management to go with that middle selection from the start. But if you just say you need X days and it will cost Y dollars, they will come back with demands that you reduce both time and money. Their underlying assumption is you clearly chose the most expensive option because you don’t understand finances and are seeking perfection. Can you see how presenting the options in this way gets you around that perception? Now you won’t have to make bad choices; you can simply do the recommended testing and everyone is better off.

Since the project manager has already proven herself keen on electrical issues, ask her what controls are in place for ensuring a Code-compliant installation of each new machine that is brought in. She can use this experience with the feeders as a justification for a small scope expansion in the equipment move.