FM Global standards for containment basins
How to make sure a new installation is made to last or that the installed protection systems have been tested to ensure their performance.
You must use recognized standards and design standards. FM Global is an insurance company that produces construction standards used for the design of various components and systems to ensure that they have undergone certification tests for their proper operation.
The FM Global (document 5-4, article 2.3.1.4 en concordance avec la norme IEEE STD 980 Guide for Containment and Control of Oil Spills in Substations) states, among other things, that a system for capturing oil leaks from a high-voltage transformer must exceed any element of the transformer by at least:
- 1.5 meters or 5 feet for a transformer containing up to 1,000 US gallons (or 3,800 liters of insulating oil).
- 2.4 meters or 8 feet for a transformer containing more than 1,000 US gallons (or 3,800 liters of insulating oil).
The FM Global standard in turn refers to the IEEE standard (IEEE, std 980-2013), which states that the containment system must be sized to contain the amount of oil from the largest transformer included in the system, in addition to any water that may accumulate as a result of rain, snowmelt or fire system operation (activated for a minimum of 1 hour). The collected water must be drained or accumulated. It's common practice to size the system for 110% of the oil capacity of the largest transformer protected by the containment basin. Another possible way is to consider 100% of the largest transformer protected by the containment basin, plus any water that could accumulate in 24 hours in the worst conditions.
It's easy to understand why Voltra's DRH4, as it seperates the oil and water, allowing the water to be instantaniously filtered and returned into the environment , is a huge advantage for a system designed to capture insulating oil from leaking high voltage transformers.