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a variety of frequencies transformer testing at the Pittsfield plant july/august 2010 IEEE power & energy magazine 75 history Thomas J. Blalock Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2010.937132 T THE FACTORY TESTING OF large power transformers during the early 20th century was complicated by the fact that many such transformers were designed for operation on fre- quencies other than 60 Hz. This meant that adequate levels of power had to be available at several frequencies for the accurate determination of the trans- former core loss (no load loss). In ad- dition, power at much higher frequen- cies was needed to test the integrity of the transformer insulation structure at voltage levels significantly higher than the operating voltage. An elaborate power plant was devel- oped during the early 1900s to provide test power at a variety of frequencies at the former large transformer plant of the General Electric (GE) Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts (see Figure 1). Direct Current (dc) Drive Motors The technique employed at the Pitts- field plant (and elsewhere as well) to obtain the necessary test power at the variety of frequencies needed to deter- mine transformer core loss was to drive the alternating current (ac) generators supplying power to the test berths with dc motors. During the early 20th century, five different power system frequen- cies that had been introduced at vari- ous times during the 1890s were in more or less common use. These in- cluded 25 Hz (introduced at Niagara Thomas Blalock’s history article in the March/April issue of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine covered the dramatic display of high-voltage discharges presented at the GE Company exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. This issue’s offer- ing, also authored by Tom, shares a common setting with his earlier article— the western Massachusetts city of Pittsfield, the largest municipality in and the county seat of Berkshire County. William Stanley established a transformer manufacturing business in Pitts- field in 1891. The Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company was acquired by GE in the early 1900s, and, by 1907, the growing complex of factory and support buildings that comprised the Pittsfield plant were being commonly referred to as the Pittsfield Works. For most of the 20th century and up until final closure of the transformer line in the late 1980s, Pittsfield was GE’s prime site for the manufacture of large high-voltage transformers. For many years, the Pittsfield plant employed thousands of workers and was consistently the largest employ- er in the Pittsfield area. The GE High-Voltage Engineering Laboratory was established at the Pitts- field plant in 1914, and it was there that the awe-inspiring, high-voltage dis- charge displays presented at the 1939 World’s Fair were developed and per- fected. In this new article, Tom offers our readers a fascinating insight into the process of large transformer testing at Pittsfield and the need for test power at various frequencies to properly determine such parameters as core loss and insulation integrity. This is the 11th history article that Thomas J. Blalock has authored and con- tributed to IEEE Power & Energy Magazine. Tom earned a B.S.E.E. degree from Lafayette College and an M.E.E.E. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His duties as a development engineer at the former GE High-Voltage Engineer- ing Laboratory in Pittsfield included lightning protection and high-voltage switching surge studies. Tom’s retirement hobby continues to be the explora- tion and careful documentation of historically important and interesting elec- tric power projects and equipment. His long experience at the Pittsfield plant uniquely qualifies him to author this issue’s history article. We are pleased and honored to welcome Tom back to these pages as our guest history author for this issue of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine. —Carl Sulzberger Associate Editor, History
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a variety of frequenciestransformer testing at the Pittsfield plantjuly/august 2010IEEE power & energy magazine 75historyThomas J. BlalockDigital Object Identier 10.1109/MPE.2010.937132TTHEFACTORYTESTINGOF large power transformers during the early 20th century was complicated by thefactthatmanysuchtransformers weredesignedforoperationonfre-quencies other than 60 Hz. This meant that adequate levels of power had to be available at several frequencies for the accuratedeterminationofthetrans-formercoreloss(noloadloss).Inad-dition,poweratmuchhigherfrequen-cies was needed to test the integrity of thetransformerinsulationstructureat voltage levels signicantly higher than the operating voltage. An elaborate power plant was devel-oped during the early 1900s to provide test power at a variety of frequencies at theformerlargetransformerplantof the General Electric (GE) Company in Pittseld, Massachusetts (see Figure 1).Direct Current (dc) Drive MotorsThetechniqueemployedatthePitts-eldplant(andelsewhereaswell)to obtainthenecessarytestpoweratthe variety of frequencies needed to deter-mine transformer core loss was to drive thealternatingcurrent(ac)generators supplying power to the test berths with dc motors.Duringtheearly20thcentury, five different power system frequen-cies that had been introduced at vari-oustimesduringthe1890swerein more or less common use. These in-cluded 25 Hz (introduced atNiagara Thomas Blalocks history article in the March/April issue of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine covered the dramatic display of high-voltage discharges presented at the GE Company exhibit at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. This issues offer-ing,alsoauthoredbyTom,sharesacommonsettingwithhisearlierarticlethe western Massachusetts city of Pittsfield, the largest municipality in and the county seat of Berkshire County.William Stanley established a transformer manufacturing business in Pitts-field in 1891. The Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company was acquired by GE intheearly1900s,and,by1907,thegrowingcomplexoffactoryandsupport buildings that comprised the Pittsfield plant were being commonly referred to as the Pittsfield Works. For most of the 20th century and up until final closure of the transformer line in the late 1980s, Pittsfield was GEs prime site for the manufacture of large high-voltage transformers. For many years, the Pittsfield plant employed thousands of workers and was consistently the largest employ-er in the Pittsfield area.TheGEHigh-VoltageEngineeringLaboratorywasestablishedatthePitts-fieldplantin1914,anditwastherethattheawe-inspiring,high-voltagedis-chargedisplayspresentedatthe1939WorldsFairweredevelopedandper-fected. In this new article, Tom offers our readers a fascinating insight into the process of large transformer testing at Pittsfield and the need for test power at variousfrequenciestoproperlydeterminesuchparametersascorelossand insulation integrity. This is the 11th history article that Thomas J. Blalock has authored and con-tributed to IEEE Power & Energy Magazine. Tom earned a B.S.E.E. degree from Lafayette College and an M.E.E.E. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His duties as a development engineer at the former GE High-Voltage Engineer-ingLaboratoryinPittsfieldincludedlightningprotectionandhigh-voltage switching surge studies. Toms retirement hobby continues to be the explora-tion and careful documentation of historically important and interesting elec-tric power projects and equipment. His long experience at the Pittsfield plant uniquely qualifies him to author this issues history article.WearepleasedandhonoredtowelcomeTombacktothesepagesasour guest history author for this issue of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine.Carl SulzbergerAssociate Editor, History76IEEE power & energy magazinejuly/august 2010Falls),30Hz(introducedbythe WestinghouseElectricCompany), 40Hz(introducedbyGE),50Hz (usedinsouthernCaliforniaandin Europe),andthesurvivingstandard of 60 Hz.In the Pittseld test power installa-tion,threemotor-generatorsetswere usedtoconverttheavailable60-Hz powerintheplantintodcpowerat vedifferentvoltages.Thesewere 220,275,330,440,and550V.Each dcdrivemotorcouldbeoperatedon oneofthesevevoltages.Thetest generatorthatitdrovewouldthenbe operatedataspeedsuitabletoallow ittoproduceoneoftheveneeded frequencies.Finespeedcontrolwas available to the test berth operators by means of drive-motor eld rheostats in the berths (see Figure 2).Since the primary function of these test generators was to provide power at theproperfrequencyfortheaccurate measurement of transformer core loss (no-load loss), the generators were of-tenreferredtointhateraasmagne-tizers. This term reected the fact that onlymagnetizingcurrenthadtobe supplied during the core loss measure-mentprocedure.Thegeneratorshad signicantlygreaterkVAratingsthan necessaryforthispurpose,however. Thishelpedtoinsurethatthewave-formoftheacvoltageappliedtothe transformerduringthecorelosstest wouldbeasclosetoatruesinewave as possible. Anotherreasonfortherelatively high kVA ratings of these test genera-tors was the fact that they were some-timesusedtoprovidecurrentduring thetransformerloadlosstest(short circuittest).Thegeneratorswere equippedwithmultisectionwindings thatcouldbeconnectedinvarious congurations. This allowed low volt-age at high current to be obtained. The winding connections were changed by meansofexternallinkboardsaccord-ingtostandardlinkarrangementdia-grams posted nearby.Frequency ChangersSomemotor-generatorsetsinthistest powerinstallationconsistedoftwoac synchronous machines coupled togeth-er.Theseservedthepurposeofcon-verting the available 60-Hz plant power into higher-frequency power necessary to test the insulation structures of trans-formers at voltages signicantly higher than their designed operating voltages. figure 1. Postcard view of the main gate of the Pittsfield GE Company plant in 1913 (image courtesy of Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts).figure 2. Early test berth control panel with motor and generator field rheostat control wheels beneath desk (photo courtesy of the Hall of Electrical History, Schenectady, New York).78IEEE power & energy magazinejuly/august 2010Itisnotpossibletoapplyavoltage signicantlyhigherthanthe operating voltageofatransformerbecausethis woulddrivethemagneticcoreinto saturation. Faradays law, the basic law of electromagnetic induction, relates the quantity volts per turn in a transformer to the rate of change of the magnetic ux in the core. If a higher than normal volts per turn is imposed on the transformer at its normal operating frequency, Fara-dayslawrequiresthatmaximumux densityinthecoreincreaseinpropor-tion.Thiswouldsaturatethecore,and normaltransformeroperationwould cease. If, however, the transformer is ex-cited at a frequency signicantly higher thanitsdesignfrequency,therateof changeofuxwouldincreaseinpro-portion. This allows the maximum ux density to remain near its normal level, whileFaradayslawisstillsatisedat much higher values of volts per turn.Suchahigh-voltageinsulationtest is referred to as an induced test because the higher-than-normal voltage applied isinducedbytransformeractioninto all of the windings. This, then, tests the integrityoftheturn-to-turninsulation structure of the transformer.Earlyinthe20thcentury,itwas decided that a frequency about 400 Hz wouldbesatisfactoryforthemajority of such induced tests. Accordingly, two large 420-Hz motor-generator sets were installedinwhichthegeneratorhad seventimesthenumberof magnetic poles as did the 60-Hz drive motor. In addition, a 200-Hz motor-generator set wasinstalledforspecialapplications inwhichthe420-Hzfrequencywould createobjectionablecapacitiveeffects inthetransformerundertest.Thisset consisted of a six-pole drive motor and two 20-pole generators.Heat RunsA heat run is a long-term test in which the ultimate temperature rise inside the transformer is determined. In the years during which the power installation de-scribed here was in use, it was possible to conduct heat run tests with the trans-former both excited at its rated voltage and carrying rated current in its wind-ings. Such tests required the use of two generators.Amagnetizerwasusedto exciteonewindingatratedvoltage (which would then be induced by turns ratiointotheotherwindings)whilea secondgenerator,commonlycalleda loader,wouldservetocirculaterated current in the windings.Forrelativelysmalltransformers, such a heat run could be performed by using the loader to return the required kVA (mostly reactive) to the power sys-tem.Thiswascalledaloadingback heat run, but it required the magnetizer tohavethecapacitytosupplythefull kVA of the transformer under test.Since the vast majority of transform-ersbuiltduringthiseraweresingle phase with three units (and sometimes a fourth as a spare) being used for three-phaseapplications,itwasnormalto have duplicate transformers available in the shop. One single-phase transformer couldbegivenaheatrunbyconnect-ing it with one of its duplicates in such a way that the magnetizer generator was required to supply only the magnetizing current while the loader generator sup-pliedratedcurrent,ataveryreduced voltage,whichcirculatedinthewind-ings of both transformers. This was re-ferred to as a bucking heat run.Eventually,however,aslarger transformers were built, such heat runs figure 3.A 60-cycle loader with dc drive motor in the foreground and workers assembling switchboard panels in the left background (photo courtesy of the Hall of Electrical History, Schenectady, New York).figure 4. Postcard view of the Pittsfield plant from the southeast, circa 1915, with Building 12 at right center (image courtesy of Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts).80IEEE power & energy magazinejuly/august 2010werenolongerfeasible.Accord-ingly,theindustryrecognizedthe acceptanceofwhatwastermeda compromise heat run in which only ratedcurrentatreducedvoltage was circulated in the windings of a short-circuited transformer. In this typeofheatrun,thecontribution ofthecoreloss(atratedvoltage) to the heating of the transformer is simulated by holding a total loss in kilowatts (core loss plus load loss) untilthe temperatureoftheoilin the transformer stabilizes at its ulti-mate temperature rise value.Since a great many transformers weredesignedforoperationat25 Hzduringtheearly20thcentury, averyunusualmotor-generator set was included in this test power installation,whichwasusedas aloaderforheatrunson25-Hz transformers.Thisconsistedof a60-Hzdrivemotorcoupledtoa large(3,100kVA)generatorthat produced 24-Hz power. Experience withbuckingheatrunsoverthe years had shown that it was actually desirable to offset the frequency of the loading current slightly from the frequencysuppliedbythemagne-tizer generator. The latter frequency hadtobeheldatthepropervalue toaccuratelyexcitethecoreloss, buttheloaderfrequencycouldbe varied slightly with no detrimental effectsontheaccuracyofthetest. The use of a 24-Hz loader generator greatly simplied the design of the loadermotor-generatorsetoperat-ing from 60 Hz (to generate 25-Hz power, this set would have required a 24-pole drive motor). This set was called the 24-cycle loader.Allofthefrequencychang-er motor-generatorsetswere figure 5. One of several switchboard sections for the control of test generators (photo cour-tesy of the GE Company).CAPEs dynamicTCC display makes it easy to see how coordination time intervals change when you move the fault around.Realistic models:Detailed bus structuresWorlds largest library of detailed,vendor-specific relay modelsCurrent-limited wind generatorsFor serious work:Automated relay-setting Stepped-event simulations Automated coordination checking,wide area coordination reviewsSettings export to relayvendors softwareSoftwareTrainingConsultingCustomersThe protection engineers productivity secret1-888-240-4044 (US only) 1-734-761-8612www.electrocon.com/pes82IEEE power & energy magazinejuly/august 2010 controlledfromonesetofslate switchboardpanels.Sincethemajor machineswerethe420-Hzinduced testgeneratorsandthe24-Hzloader generator,thisswitchboardwasinter-estingly referred to on drawings as the 24 & 420-cycle Board.Later,asmoretransformerswere beingbuiltforoperationat60Hz, anotherlargegenerator(4,300kVA) wasinstalledandwasreferredtoas the60-cycleloader.Thissetwas equipped with a dc drive motor so it ac-tually could be driven at various speeds toloadheatrunsatfrequenciesother than60Hz.Theuseofeldrheostat control on the drive motor allowed for theslightoffsetofloadingfrequency, if necessary (see Figure 3).The Pittsfield InstallationThiselaborateinstallationofmotor-generatorsetsandswitchboardswas located in the westernmost bay of what wasknowninthePittseldplantas Building12,whichdatedfrom1914 (seeFigure4).Themotor-generator section was called the power bay.figure 6. Early view of the Pittsfield plant power house interior (photo courtesy of the Hall of Electrical History, Schenectady, New York).84IEEE power & energy magazinejuly/august 2010The plant itself, however, dated from 1900. The original buildings were con-structedasanewhomefortheStan-leyElectricManufacturingCompany, which had been located since 1891 in a much smaller facility near the center of Pittseld.WilliamStanleyiscredited with having demonstrated the rst suc-cessful use of transformers for ac dis-tribution in 1886 in the town of Great Barrington,Massachusetts,southof Pittseld.Atthattime,Stanleywas workingforGeorgeWestinghousein Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania.Following thisdemonstration,however,Stanley decidedtoleaveWestinghouseand start his own transformer manufactur-ingbusinessinPittseld.TheStanley CompanywaslateracquiredbyGE, and, by 1907, the Pittseld plant facili-ties had become known collectively as the Pittseld Works of GE.The Stanley Company had construct-edatestpowerfacilityintheoriginal building of the Pittseld plant (Building 1) and, in 1914, many of the motor-gen-erator sets there were moved to the new powerbayinBuilding12.Othersets were built at that time by GE in that com-panys Schenectady, New York, plant. The power bay extended 380 ft (116 m)fromnorthtosouthandwas40ft (12.2 m) wide. A good portion of both the east and west wall areas of the bay containedswitchboardpanelsforthe controlofthevariousrotatingma-chines. As was common practice in that era, these were slate panels mounted on iron pipe frameworks (see Figure 5).Atthenorthendofthebaywere three motor-generator sets that convert-ed the 60-Hz plant power (at 2,300 V) to the ve different dc voltages needed to drive the test generators at different speeds. There were four dc generators inallsinceonemotordrovetwogen-erators. These sets were referred to as the prime movers since they served to provide the primary power for the op-eration of the test generator sets.Theacdrivemotorsforthesesets, aswellasthoseofthefrequency changersets,weretwophaserather than three phase because, at that time, the plants power house was equipped withtwo-phasegenerators.Thiswas aleftoverfromtheStanleyCompany era.Stanleymanufacturedtwo-phase generators,inadditiontotransform-ers, during the 1890s. This resulted be-cause both GE and Westinghouse were producing three-phase generators then, andStanleysadherencetotwo-phase machineslessened(butdidnotcom-pletely eliminate) patent conicts with theothercompanies(seeFigure6). Remnants of this two-phase power sys-tem were actually still in use when the Pittseld GE plant ceased operations in 1987. The remaining two-phase equip-ment in the plant was supplied from a three-phasepowersystemusingspe-cial phase-conversion transformers.Atthenorthendofthepowerbay, thefourprimemovergeneratorspro-vided a total of 1,900 kW of dc power at ve voltages. Three 100-kW exciter motor-generatorsetsfedthemain 125-Vdcexciterbusthatsuppliedthe elds of the majority of the test genera-torsandtheirdcdrivemotors.Inad-dition,therewere14smallerexciters dedicatedtocertainofthelargergen-erators.The totalavailableexcitation power was 720 kW (see Figure 7).There were a total of 16 two-phase ac drive motors for variousmotor-generator figure 8. The power bay from the south end with step-up transformers in pits in the foreground (photo courtesy of the Hall of Electrical History, Schenectady, New York).figure 7. The power bay from the north end with an operator seated at a desk near the center of the image (photo courtesy of the Hall of Electrical History, Schenectady, New York).86IEEE power & energy magazinejuly/august 2010sets that totaled over 5,200 hp. Twenty-threedcdrivemotors,totaling6,570 hp,droveatotalof29testgenerators (six motors drove two generators each). Thesegenerators totaledover14,000 kVA with the largest having a capacity of 1,500 kVA each. In addition, a 940-hpdcmotordrovethe60-cycleloader generator (see Figure 8).Besidesthetestgenerators,there wereatotalofeightgeneratorsdriven by ac motors for high-voltage testing and 24-Hzloading.Thisbroughtthetotal number of machines (motors plus gener-ators) in the power bay to 99. There was also one spare induction motor listed in themachineinventory.Thisraisedthe grand total of machines to exactly 100.Unusual EventsOccasionally,therewasaneedfor 180-Hzpowertoconductspecial high-voltageinducedtests.Thisfre-quency was not normally available in the power bay. Accordingly, the drive motor for one of the 420-Hz induced test motor-generator sets was tempo-rarilydisconnectedfromitsnormal 60-Hzsupplyandwasreconnected tooneofthelargetestgenerators. Thedcdrivemotorforthatgenera-torwasthenoperatedattheproper voltage to allow the generator to pro-duce 25-Hz power. This would allow theinducedtestmotor-generatorset toprovide175-Hzpowerinsteadof 420-Hzpower.Byweakeningthe fieldofthedcdrivemotorslightly, the25-Hztestgeneratorwouldbe speeded up and the required 180-Hz powerthencouldbeobtainedfrom the induced set.The test generators were three-phase machines.Todrivethetwo-phasemo-tor of the induced test set, a special two-phase link diagram was used on the test generatortoobtaintwo-phasepower. The load on the generator had to be kept belowitsratingduetotheunbalanced nature of this connection.The unintentional weakening of the eldofadcdrivemotorcould,how-ever, lead to disastrous results since it causes the motor to speed up. This did occur on one occasion in the 1950s.Priortothis,someofthelarger testgeneratorsetshadbeenequipped withAmplidynecontrolsforboththe generatoreld(toaccuratelycontrol outputvoltage)andthemotoreld(to accurately control speed). This method madeuseofsmallAmplidynecontrol generators driven by an ac motor. One ofthetestgeneratorsetssoequipped was located in the southern half of the powerbay,anditsdcdrivemotorwas fed from what was named the dc motor board in the northern half of the bay.Itwasafairlylongwalkfromthe locationofthistestgeneratorsettothe dc motor board, and asecond-shift fore-manhaddevelopedan unconventional Fault Locators from5 36kV760 3200JHVI is the source for both VLF withstand testing and cable fault location on all sizes of power cable and collector cables used on wind farms, especially for 33 kV and 35 kV cable circuits. Portable Substation and Switchgear hv test equipment available also. Buy individual productsor let us design a complete VLF cable care test & locate package.ISO 9001 : 2008july/august 2010IEEE power & energy magazine 87If you participate in the FTR (CRR/ TCC) market,you know that developing competitivetransmission-rights bidding strategies andportfolios is critical to your success.Thats where Nexants HEDGEcan help.As the industrys only comprehensive studypackage for FTR (CRR/ TCC) auctions, thissoftware provides you with:All the power and flexibility needed forsimulating and analyzing auction clearingin the ISO FTR marketsOur acclaimed auction modeling andcalculation enginethe same engine thatis supplied to all ISOs to routinely con-duct and/or analyze their FTR auctionsHEDGE package capabilities include:All auction timeframes (month, season,year, etc.)Peak, off-peak, 24-hour, and multi-calen-dar-periodsBids and offers with single price or curvePoint-to-point and flowgate rightsObligations and optionsDC and AC network modelsWide range of price and sensitivity resultsCorresponding allocation calculationsUp-to-date modeling of all new FTRproductsAre you an FTR/CRR/ TCCmarket participant?Software & Information [email protected]://www.nexant.com/products/erms_hedge.htmlHEDGEThe comprehensive multifunctionFTR/CRR/TCC auction package.technique for shutting down this set at the end of his shift. He would simply trip out the adjacent Amplidyne set. This would removetheeldsupplyforthedcdrivemotor,andtheset wouldbegintospeedup.Thatwouldcausetheover-speed deviceonthesettofunctionandtripthemotorarmature breaker on the distant dc motor board, thus shutting down the set. This foolhardy method worked ne until one fateful night when the over-speed device operated properly, but the arma-ture breaker failed to trip. The motor-generator set speeded up beyondcontrolinaveryshorttimeanddestroyeditselfina spectacular manner.Fortunately, nobody was injured in this debacle, but the wall of the power bay adjacent to the former motor-generator set had to be completely rebuilt. A subsequent inventory of power bay machines facetiously listed this motor-generator set as being in orbit (see Figure 9).EpilogueBy the 1920s, the presence of 30- and 40-Hz electric power in the United States had declined signicantly, so transform-ers were rarely built for use on these frequencies. Therefore, the need for dc drive motors on transformer testing genera-tors diminished.AtPittseld,auniquetestgeneratorsetwasinstalledin 1925.Thisconsistedoffourlargemachinesplusastarting motor. Two of the machines were 12,000-kVA test generators thatcouldbeparalleledforthetestingofverylargetrans-formers. The set was equipped with two synchronous ac drive motorsaswell,whichwereusedoneatatime.Onemotor drove the set at a speed that allowed the generators to produce 60-Hz power for testing. Even though 60-Hz power was avail-ableforthedrivemotors,theuseofageneratorfor60-Hz testing allowed for accurate control of the test voltage.The other drive motor was equipped with sectional con-sequent-polewindings. These windings could beconnected tooperatethemotorataspeedthatallowedthegenerators toproduce50-Hzpower.Byreconnectingthemotorwind-ings to effectively double the number of magnetic poles, this figure 9. The remains of the self-destructed motor-genera-tor set (photo courtesy of Roy Himes).88IEEE power & energy magazinejuly/august 2010same motor would operate at one-half normalspeedtoallowthegenerators toproduce25-Hzpower.Thismotor-generatorsetwassolargethatitwas housedinabuildingadjacenttothe powerbayandcametobereferredto bythetestdepartmentsimplyasthe bigset.Itremainedinuseuntil1966 when it was scrapped to make way for newconstruction.Thesethadbeen abusedovertheyearsbecauseitwas sometimesusedtoconductshortcir-cuittestsontransformersatfullrated voltagetodeterminethemechanical stressesonthewindingsduringshort circuit conditions.Theoccasionalneedfor25-and 50-Hztestpoweractuallyremained untilthenalclosingofthePittseld transformerplantin1987.Twenty-veHzfurnacetransformersforthe powering of large electric-arc furnaces in steel plants continued to be built in Pittseldasmanyoldersteelplants were still using 25-Hz power systems. Also,duringtheearly1980s,50-Hz transformers were built in Pittseld for shipment to both Egypt and Israel. One of the old dc drive test motor-generator sets had been kept in usable conditiontoaccuratelymeasurecore loss for such transformers. It was used, however,veryinfrequently.Accord-ingly,therststepofthewrittenin-structions for starting up this set was to notifytheplantredepartment.This was necessary since the dust accumu-latedonthesetwouldtriggerthead-jacent smoke detector as the machines warmedup.Thedcpowerrequired tooperatethissetwasobtainedfrom amodernsolid-staterectierunitin later years.In the 1960s, new induced test gen-eratorswereinstalledthatoperatedat afrequencyof240Hz.Occasionally, however,specialinducedtestshadto beconductedattheold420-Hzfre-quency, and one of the old induced test motor-generatorsetsinthepowerbay wouldbestartedupforthispurpose. This occurred for the last time in 1983. Overall, this fascinatingly complex ar-ray of motor-generator sets in the pow-er bay served to provide test power for 70 years.Today,Building12stillstands, butallofthepowerbayequipmentis longgoneexceptforacollectionof lerecords,machinenameplates,and switchboardmeterssalvagedandpre-served by the author. For Further ReadingT.J.Blalock,TransformersatPitts-field.Baltimore,MD:GatewayPress, 1998.W. T. Taylor, Transformer Practice. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1913.InstructionsforTestingElectrical Apparatus.Schenectady,NY:General Electric Company, 1941. p&eE x p e r t s Te a c h i n gf r o m P r a c t i c a lE x p e r i e n c eWh y K i n e c t r i c s ? Expert knowledge and know-how Practical lab and field experience Understanding of utility needs and client environment In-depth technical course content Systematic, focused approach to training (SAT)Va l u e A d d e d C o u r s e s Learn from established experts with real-world success Hands-on workshops, demonstrations and case studies Instructional design standards and methodology (SAT) Flexible locations and content customizing (courses atKinectrics or clients site) Continuing Education Units (CEUs)Kinectrics scientists and engineers deliver comprehensive training to bridge the knowledge-to-practice gap for theenergy sector, utilities, manufacturing and related industries.www. k i n e c t r i c s . c o m