Eight Years Experience with Protective Reactors

In 1914 the authors presented before the Institute two analytical papers on Protective Reactors. During 1917, 1918 and 1919 three large power stations embodying what seemed to be the best system of bus and feeder reactors were placed in operation. The present paper gives brief accounts of sixteen accidents on the busses or feeders of these power stations. In each case the reactors effectually kept the power concentration within such limits that the damage was localized, and no troubles were experienced from mechanical displacement of conductors and insulators elsewhere. In concluding, the authors state that their experience with reactors leads them to believe that short circuits in the largest power stations can be so controlled by a properly designed system of reactors that their destructive effects wil be confined to the immediate vicinity of the arc, and that it will be possible so to tie together power stations and power systems of any magnitude that a short circuit will be of merely local significance and will not jeopardize the service of other parts of the system.