Security of Seismic Construction of High Voltage Switchgear

There has been a growing awareness in the electrical power industry of the necessity of protecting high voltage switchgears against anticipated severe earthquakes. The authors have accumulated data from a number of investigations into the seismic construction of this equipment. In addition, experiments conducted with a powerful hydraulic shaking table have confirmed the pertinence of the analytical data. These data have resulted in a practical and effective method of insuring the seismic design of high voltage switchgear. Many different types of high voltage power circuit breakers and gas insulated compact substations (GIS) have been constructed based on these procedures, and the security of this equipment has been verified during several recent earthquakes in Japan.