Flood passage preparation
Flood Preparedness
With the arrival of spring, the period of floods and high water inevitably comes. Accelerated snowmelt, overflowing rivers and lakes, and heavy precipitation can lead to significant negative consequences: flooding of residential buildings and social facilities, erosion of roads, destruction of bridges, accidents in utility networks, death of animals and plants, and many other unpleasant incidents.
Rising water levels are also dangerous for organizations and enterprises. Floodwaters can damage electrical equipment, posing a threat to the life and health of people and animals, and also causing fires due to short circuits.
When overhead power lines are flooded, water can undermine the poles. This creates a high probability of critical tilting or falling of poles, which in turn causes breaks and sags of wires in close proximity to the water surface. Naturally, such accidents are deadly for people and animals in the flooded area. Exactly the same consequences can arise from the flooding of electrical equipment at transformer substations owned by enterprises.
To avoid negative consequences when electrical installations are flooded, they must first be de-energized. At the same time, before the flood season, the following preparatory measures should be carried out at each enterprise:
- identify potential flood zones and analyze water flow paths across the enterprise territory;
- remove snow from the territory that may be flooded;
- inspect the technical condition and clean storm sewers, drainage devices, cable trenches, and other engineering structures;
- if possible, install ramps and platforms for the evacuation of employees and for carrying out production work to eliminate the consequences of flooding;
- inspect and prepare pumping equipment and available water pumping facilities for active operation;
- additionally reinforce all utility structures (heating networks, water disposal, electrical networks, gas equipment);
- take mandatory measures to protect basement premises;
- if possible, ensure the tightness of electrical panels located in the flood zone;
- check the technical condition and operability of autonomous backup power sources, and ensure a sufficient fuel supply for them;
- inspect overhead power lines (OPL), transformer substations (TS), and complete transformer substations (CTS) located within the potential flooding area;
- take comprehensive measures to restore damaged cable lines;
- ensure reliable power supply to facilities of Category I and I special reliability categories;
- exclude planned maintenance of backup cable lines, overhead power lines, and other electrical equipment during the flood period;
- check lighting in transformer substations, distribution points (DP), and main distribution frames (MDF), and restore it if necessary;
- assign personnel for emergency repair work and conduct anti-emergency drills with them;
- ensure the availability of emergency stocks of material and technical resources.
Upon receiving information about the onset of a flood, it is necessary to de-energize the facility's electrical installations, and if possible, evacuate equipment and material assets to upper floors where they will be out of reach of floodwaters.
It is forbidden to supply voltage to electrical installations immediately after the flood has ended. Before starting them up, it is necessary to wait for them to dry completely.
Thus, in order to minimize negative consequences during the flood period, preparatory measures must be carried out on the enterprise's territory, and employees must be instructed on their actions during and after the flood.
Report any malfunctions in the power supply networks to the dispatcher of the Verkhnedvinsk RES at phone numbers 5-32-41, 5-30-84. Before the team arrives, do not approach electrical installations closer than 8 meters and organize security of the damage site to prevent unauthorized persons from approaching.
Head of the Verkhnedvinsk
District Power and Gas Inspectorate A.G. Andreev