Background
When you are billed as the largest wind power project in the country with thousands of acres of turbines spread across the Mojave Desert, installation speed and safety are major concerns. With an agreement in place to buy 1,550 megawatts of electricity to power 600,000 homes, the Mojave Wind Project is the largest wind farm in the United States.
Problem
The Mojave windfarm is located approximately 20 miles north of one of the worlds most active earthquake zones - the San Andreas fault. Due to the close proximity to this fault, the connection from the switch to the breaker needed to be reinforced to withstand high levels of seismic activity.
Solution
The customer turned to DMC Power to engineer, test and manufacture the custom cable connectors to the right with just a short lead time. The connectors were reinforced for high levels of seismic stability, passed all high voltage tests and installed using our single Swage installation in a fraction of the time it would have taken to weld.
Installation
The installation took place in early June - in the desert! - where temperatures reach over 90 degrees with 50 mph wind gusts. The actual installation occurred on a windy day, 25 feet in the air with live 500kV lines in close proximity. The construction crew was a regular DMC Power tool user for years and was familiar with the process. In just minutes they were able to install the cables and connect them using the DMC Power Swage tool system.
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- 65 TONS of Swaging Power!
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- Thousands of acres of massive wind mills
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- Looking up from underneath you can see the straight, easy installation
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- Look at that 90 degree angle and the rigidity of the connection
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- Installing the vertical cable to the breaker before trimming to size
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- In the lift installing and measuring the horizontal cables
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- Sliding the cable into the connector – one Swage on each side and its installed!
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- We need to connect this breaker to that switch on the top right while maintaining seismic strength
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- Connectors were delivered in 8 foot and 12 foot segments
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- No strength or rigidity at all on these connections..and they take longer to weld in place
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- Fits in your hand and snugly around the connector
