Clickez-Ici: Bzzzzzzt!!!

OR,

Holy light-show Batman! It's alive!

I found the Putfile copy of this clip of a failed 1/2 million volt shunt reactor switch months ago via Mumbo-jumbo (whose link - a thousand apologies - I've lost) but never got around to posting it. Which was just as well; because even after looking the thing up, I couldn't make head or tails of what in the heck a shunt reactor was.

I mean honestly, I'm supposed to understand this?

Shunt reactors are used in an extra high-voltage substation to neutralize inductive reactance in long EHV transmission lines.

Yaaaah. Clear as mud. I think not. There is a slightly more exhaustive, and equally mystifying, explanation of shunt reactors; and in this case a f***ed up shunt reactor; alongside the embedded video over at YouTube. This is Clickez-Ici so click the pic to watch. Oh, and if any of you could explain the thing to me in non-gobbledegook I'd be deeply appreciative.

posted by dorna! @ 6:25 am