Temporary cable connection on gen-sets. Connecting at the gen-set breaker: Risky!
Wednesday, June 4th, 2014 and is filed under Commercial
Perhaps the most common location for connecting load banks to do testing is at the Gen-Set output breaker. Just loosen the lugs, remove the building load cabling, and attach your temporary cables directly to the breaker. Start the generator, close the breaker, and you’re ready for the test! Right? But wait, let’s consider the risks when choosing this method.
Connecting to the generator breaker usually requires disconnecting your building cabling. This creates risk to your loads should a power outage event occur. And especially in Life Safety or Mission Critical applications, choosing this kind of connection creates significant liability and risk to life and property. A generator breaker which has an additional set of lugs can be used to connect the temporary cable without disconnecting the building load. For this configuration, a load-shed feature on your load bank should be used to detect a power transfer to the building loads.
Another significant risk of using the gen-set breaker for connecting your load bank: lug maintenance and repair. Over time, lugs can wear out and require replacement, usually at the most inopportune time; during a load bank test! And when this happens, there’s down time and additional expense. Labor, parts, rentals, electricians, more time and more expense … not a good situation. There’s got to be a better way! Read More