Neat job. I've always wanted to poke my head into ConEd's system and see the whole thing from behind the scenes.
Years back I remember ConEd was replacing two or three very large transformers down the street of a large venu I was working an event. Turns out we worked the same event the next year and amazing the same day ConEd again had the second transformer scheduled to moved into place. What an operation. Huge trailer from Bay Crane along with one of their giant hydraulic cranes. Was told the transformer weighed in at 240,000 pounds.
Heh, our most recent replacement a few weeks ago came in at almost 900,000lbs with oil. Depending on the speed of the replacement you can't always move the transformer dry because you need a certain amount of time between filling it and putting it in service.
That sounds like quite the transformer. That must have been at one of the big 345kV subs. And I assume shipping filled is to avoid the time needed to remove air bubbles.
I know a few people in the ConEd trenches, one guy is a lineman who does all the >=69kV stuff and the other guy worked in substations and was in mott haven last I spoke to him (cushy job).
I'm always amazed how much new tech con ed has installed and how much old stuff is still kicking around. I live in south queens and we're all 4kV overhead fed from area subs in turn fed by 27kV. Some of those 4kV poles have westinghouse transformers from the 30/40's still in service, glass insulators, and leftover wooden pins from older insulators. Some are so old the primaries have fallen off and just hang between two adjacent poles, some the crossarms are half falling off. Amazing this grid doesn't go down more. Then the next pole is brand new, composite strain insulators, cutouts, reclosers, metering, etc. All modern hardware. And I know some areas they upgraded the 4kV overhead to 27kV. The secondaries are in even worse condition, ancient cloth insulation half weatherd/baked off. But it all still works.
I really love how there's this massive network of cabling and systems which orchestrate the flow of power from multiple synchronized generators so it can get to your humble wall socket and charge a phone or turn a light bulb on.
Years back I remember ConEd was replacing two or three very large transformers down the street of a large venu I was working an event. Turns out we worked the same event the next year and amazing the same day ConEd again had the second transformer scheduled to moved into place. What an operation. Huge trailer from Bay Crane along with one of their giant hydraulic cranes. Was told the transformer weighed in at 240,000 pounds.