NEW SINGLE-PHASE BYPASS DEVICES FOR MEDIUM

VOLTAGE SWITCHGEAR
Thomas Haack, BSD GmbH, Grossroehrsdorf, Germany (t.haack@bsd-dresden.de)
Hendrik Tänzer, BSD GmbH, Grossroehrsdorf, Germany (h.taenzer@bsd-dresden.de)
Thomas Jordan, BSD GmbH, Grossroehrsdorf, Germany (t.jordan@bsd-dresden.de)

Abstract
The increasing demand of live work at air insulated medium voltage switchgear forces new live work-
ing technologies and equipment. Especially live maintenance of switching devices is a growing issue.
For carrying out a complete maintenance of switching device you have to use a bypass system for
make switching operations without interrupting the power supply. Besides to the flexible well-proven
Mobile BSD Jumpering System (ÜBS) which can be used almost independent of the type of switch-
gear the new single-phase bypass device is an alternative for making bypass.
The paper deals with the new BSD bypass device which easily can be designed for a wide range of
switchgear types. But every three single-phase bypass devices will be manufactured fix to one switch-
gear type. The equipment size is very low and so this bypass device can be used also in tower sta-
tions e.g. .

1 Introduction
For making a bypass over switchgears in me-
dium voltage lines (MV – up to 36 kV) already
several technologies exists. For installing a by-
pass in air insulated medium voltage substations
exists the well proven BSD-ÜBS (Mobile BSD
Jumpering System). This system consists of
flexible jumper cables, special terminals and
mobile gas-insulated switchgear /1/. This system
is very flexible and can used at almost every type
of indoor switchgears even at MV lines (Fig. 1
and 2). Of course high flexibility is always con-
nected with bigger range of equipment. With an
installed BSD-ÜBS exists wide range of possibili-
ties for maintenance in the station – maintenance
at switchgear, load breaker, circuit breaker,
change fuses, work at dead busbars etc..
Also there exists some cases or situation in sta-
tions were the BSD-ÜBS cannot be used or
where it would be better to use a smaller system.
Smaller system means less equipment and
faster installation.
For example is the use of BSD-ÜBS in MV tower Fig. 1: BSD-ÜBS installed in indoor switchgear
stations (which are common in Germany) not
Further more there is only an interest for do
possible. The switchgear which should be
some maintenance at the load breaker and make
bridged with the bypass is situated on upper
switching operations. If then your grid has a high
floor. There is no space and no connecting
number of one switchgear type you don’t need
points for the terminals of the BSD-ÜBS.
the wide range of flexibility of the BSD-ÜBS. In
this case it would be better to use a smaller sys-
tem which is already adapted to your type of
switchgear.
The solution for the above mentioned situation is
the new BSD single-phase bypass devices.

Fig. 3: Design of typical air insulated load

breaker in indoor switchgear

Fig. 2: BSD-ÜBS installed at MV OHL

Overall the future of live working equipment of
indoor substations will be more and more af-
fected by special tools which will be adapted to
the special equipment in several types of sta-
tions.

2 Design and Handling

The development of the BSD single-phase by-
pass device is grounded on the safety funda-
mentals which were researched for developing
connecting technology of BSD-ÜBS /2/. Essential
requirements for the new system are safety
against bridging, safety against interchanging
phases, short circuit strength and sufficient am-
pacity.
Every single-phase bypass device makes a by-
pass over the switching terminals of one phase
of the switchgear. That means you need three
devices for installing complete bypass for one
switchgear. The maximum rated current for this
device is 250 A. The device is tested for maxi-
mum short circuit current of 16 kA for time of 300
ms.
Fig. 4: Load breaker with installed BSD single-
phase bypass device
Every single-phase bypass device consists of
two connecting terminals and one jumper cable
(Fig.: 4). Due to the jumper cables the switch-
gear get direct bypass without parallel switch.
The length of the jumper cable will be deter-
mined by the type of switchgear you want to
bypass. At every connecting terminal special
isolating plates are mounted. These plates have
following tasks:
- guarantee insulation strength while live
assembling bypass device and when de-
vice is already installed
- arrester against deep or wrong inserting
of device while assembling
 - protection against interchanging phases The time for assembling and disassembling
doesn’t need more time than 30 minutes.
The assembling of single-phase bypass devices
will be carried out by hot-stick method with spe-
cial designed hot sticks. The design of the hot
sticks can be adapted to the special design of
the station. For example in tower stations there
are longer hot sticks necessary causes of the
high place of the switchgear.
The assembling of one single-phase bypass
device takes place in three steps (Fig. 5).
1. Inserting and mounting the upper con-
necting terminal. On it is situated the fix
point for the second part.
2. Inserting the jumper cable with the lower
connecting terminal and mounting it onto
the fix point of the upper terminal.
3. Mounting the lower connecting terminal
under the switchgear to the busbar.

Fig. 7: Open load breaker with complete in-

stalled bypass devices in MV tower station

Fig. 5: 3 assembling steps for bypass device

Fig. 6: Assembling of bypass device in MV tower

station (left) and MV indoor substation (right)
Due to the modular design of the single-phase
bypass devices the device can be easily adapted
to several types of switchgears. Several types of
connecting terminal exist (like at the BSD-ÜBS) Fig. 8: Open load breaker with complete in-
for connecting the bypass devices at busbars, stalled bypass devices in indoor substation
screwed connections or other connection points.
For the right composition of type of terminals and
length of the jumper cable it is necessary to
know the type of switchgear with all dimensions.
3 Conclusion
The paper presents the new BSD single-phase
bypass system for indoor substations. This sys-
tem is light weight, fast to assemble and allows
maintenance of switchgear, maintenance of
switching contacts and switching cycles without
interrupting energy support.
An essential for development of new bypass
technology was safe assembling with hot stick
method. The device is not as flexible as the well
proven BSD-ÜBS but can be easily adapt to wide
range of switchgear types.

5 Literature
/1/ Tänzer, H.: New jumpering system for
medium voltage indoor switching stations,
ICOLIM 2008, Torun
/2/ Jordan, T., Engelmann, E., Großmann, S.:
Dielectric strength and ampacity of a new
bypass system for air insulated MV-
switchgears, ICOLIM 2008, Torun