Are You Checking Your Switchgear Regularly?

Paul had been working as a chef in a casino cruise ship for quite some time now. He started this job almost ten years ago and it was a dream for him. Casino ships offer a very luxurious life to the staff and everyone seems to be in a good mood. With all the slot machines and other games, we require a lot of electricity. One day the machines were almost ruined due to the old power generator the boat was using. The manager didn’t understand much about the power mechanics of the boat and neither did any of the staff. They were used to the operating systems that had been running forever, and no one had any idea what was going on. Fortunately one of Paul’s friends, Steve, had a relative who understood how those generators worked after being employed by one of the largest power industries in Illinois.

Steve was tasked to look into the problem, and he claimed that it was due to the fault of old power switchgear. Paul never thought that a switchgear could cause such a big problem to an extent that it could almost leave him without a job. Steve said that the fuses had a lot of problems due to their age and also the circuit breakers were not working, as they should be. Every minute that this was a problem it cost a lot of money, and because of the old switchgear most of the equipment had been rendered useless by unstable power fluctuations. Not only was this a problem for Paul and the crew, but also the investors in the ship were extremely unhappy that this small maintenance problem was costing them a huge amount of money.

To get back to full operation, they had to stay on land for a week where the power system would be repaired. This involved changing of all the faulty switchgear in the boat and adding some new wiring in a few sections. Once this was taken care of, it was like new again and they were back in business. This was everyone’s first experience such a situation, and they were able to learn firsthand what happens when switchgear becomes faulty and how much havoc they can wreck on a boat. From what they learned, when Circuit Breakers in the switchgear fail, they cause interruptions of electrical current to the system and this was the main reason why so many things had either stopped working or had to be repaired.

Lesson learned: a certified electrician should check your switchgear regularly, as they can easily cause major problems if they are not maintained properly. While you may have to pay for new switchgear from time to time, that cost is far below that of the system that it protects. Instead of trying to pinch a few pennies where it doesn’t matter too much, it’s more important to worry about the cost of losing power or having to replace major systems as a result of a small electrical fault.