Fast Acting Earthing Switch

1) One is faster than the other.

2a) Can you? Yes.

2b) Should you? That depends.

3) A little more information about the installation will be needed before an informed opinion may be made. If this earthing switch is simply to be used for maintenance purposes, I don't see why a fast-acting switch would be necessary since the line will have been de-energized and before any work is done on the line, and the lineman who could be a woman, will leisurely throw the earthing switch, then verify the line voltage before proceeding.

4) If this earthing switch is there for fault mitigation then a whole set of other issues that are beyond my knowledge and experience and this is where RAMConsult or PWSlack or JRaef jumps in and tells you to hire a competent power systems engineering firm with experience in the installation and maintenance of these devices.

Good luck with your quest.

Thanks, but you forgot to include the litany about finding 111,000,000 hits in 0.62 seconds if he had searched on Google.

Fast acting earthing switches are normally used where protection of sensitive electronic equipment is required.

Normal earthing switches are for non-sensitive and/or hardened service applications that do not require fast switching protection.

Opening/disconnecting devices at high speed limits ground fault current magnitude and minimizes transient voltage spikes that can be extremely harmful to sensitive equipment.

I would not ever consider replacing a high speed protection switch of any type with a normal acting switch because the risk of equipment damage and excessive downtime is too great along with the cost of replacement usually being very high.

No mechanical switch could ever act as fast as an electrical transient, that's the job of a surge protector. A FAES usually has load-make capability and is driven by a charged spring actuator, but its actual function and design varies according to its intended location in a power system.

Sure you can!

Just don't go near any water.

Seriously, if life is cheap where you live and the soil is soft, so grave digging is easy, go for it.

Otherwise, get someone who knows at least A LITTLE about electricity.

Replace a fast acting earth switch with a conventional switch you may as well tape your suicide note to it.

Why do you think they are fast acting?
It's so they can close on to a fault and hopefully not blow up in your face.

Both the service and earth switch are of the same making capacity in this 11KV switch. I'm still here so they didn't blow up.

Note the fault making capability.

You need to make sure I'm standing back if you're going to blow yourself up, Mildred. I don't want to witness this event. So do it on your own and don't involve me, OK?

Only one person should be in the switchroom, there's no point having backup if both are injured.