A new testing station for high-power circuit-breakers

The paper describes the general considerations that led to the building of a new testing station for high-power circuit-breakers, and gives particulars of its main technical features. The 3-phase output at the generator voltages, i.e. up to 22 kV, is adequate for full-scale testing of circuit-breakers at these voltages. At higher voltages, and particularly above 66 kV, the provision of equipment for full-scale 3-phase testing of the largest circuit-breakers could not be justified economically; and since circuit-breakers for these voltages can be tested satisfactorily as single-phase units, special efforts were made to obtain high single-phase outputs. This was obtained by a combination of features described in the paper. The outputs so obtained, up to a voltage corresponding to a rated (3-phase) voltage of 380 kV, will enable full-scale single-phase tests or unit tests to be made on almost any circuit-breaker likely to be required in the foreseeable future.