Utilities are finding evermore uses cases and applications for Smart Grid Sensors in their networks. In addition to core applications to help maintain and improve reliability, utilities are increasingly identifying new opportunities and use cases for Smart Grid Sensors to support the objectives of Asset Management teams. This presentation given at the IEEE PES GM conference in the Asset Management Working Group focuses on specific examples from utility customers using the LightHouse system to support Asset Management for Predictive Maintenance, Substation Monitoring, Capacitor Bank Monitoring, Load Monitoring and Switching at feeder tie points.

1. Asset Management Techniques Using
Smart Grid Sensors
Presented by:
Kevin Corcoran, Director - Product Line Management
Tollgrade Communications
© 2014 Tollgrade Communications, Inc.

2. Asset Management Monitoring
$49B Cumulative Global Market Through 2023
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3. Asset Management Investment Key Drivers
Asset Management Objectives:
• Maximize asset utilization and lifetime, manage risks
• Timely maintenance and upgrades to meet demand and avoid
outages driven by equipment failures
Key Drivers:
• Reduce catastrophic events
• Maximize network performance and increase efficiency
• Reduce unplanned and planned outage costs
• Reduce truck rolls
• Condition-based rather than time-based maintenance
• Improved safety
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4. Smart Grid Sensing Use Cases and Solutions
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Coordination between departments
Enabled by insightful data and analytics
Operations
Engineering
Asset
Management
Smart Grid Sensor
Data & Analytics

5. North America Use Case Trends
Predictive Maintenance
Substation Monitoring
Cap Bank Monitoring
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6. Preventative Maintenance
Use waveforms to prevent outages and respond to problems:
• Vegetation growth
• Failing underground cables
– 10 customer complaints of blinks over 2 months  3 troubleman visits, no
problem found  UG cable subsequently failed, 17 customers affected
– 6 fault current events logged. Could be leveraged to characterize and
troubleshoot root cause of complaints
Example of waveforms from failing underground cable
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7. Preventative Maintenance
Multiple fault current events in short period of time - predictors
of potential faults and outages:
• Animal Contact
– Three 4kA fault current events over 2 weeks at same location
– Transformer fuse subsequently blew due to animal contact – 38 customers
interrupted
Example of animal contact at transformer
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8. Substation Monitoring
• Identify & prevent transformer and circuit overloads
• Correct phase imbalance
• Improve planning with historical load profile data
• Eliminate truck rolls to read load at substations
• Record fault current events – leading indicators of failure
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9. Substation Monitoring
• Smart grid sensors & data analytics
– Cost-effective alternative to traditional SCADA solutions
– Substation transformer loading
– Loading per circuit and per phase
– Nameplate overload event logging and alarming
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10. Load Monitoring & Switching
• Load Switching – Better Visibility & Confidence
Problem:
– Tie points are often smaller gauge conductors without monitoring
– Transfer studies needed to determine risk of switching operation
– Without monitoring:
• Conservative estimates based on limited data
Solution:
– With cost-effective smart grid sensor monitoring & reports:
• Accurate real-time and historical data
• Improved confidence in approved switching orders
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11. Capacitor Bank Issues
• Blown fuses go undetected for
months or years
• Tremendous O&M expense to
perform periodic inspections
• Installing a SCADA enabled
capacitor controller is a large
undertaking and expensive
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12. Capacitor Bank Monitoring
Inductively powered sensors can alert utility in less than an hour when there is
a blown fuse – tremendous savings to O&M budget
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13. Key Considerations to Evaluate Sensors
“From an asset manager’s perspective, this technology will
allow us to know immediately if there is a problem that is
easy to fix or if it is a serious problem that requires capital
investment.”
-- Ivano Laboricca, Vice President of Asset Management
Toronto Hydro
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14. Key Considerations to Evaluate Sensors
• Ease of deployment:
– Weight, ease of install with hot stick
– Need for pole-mounted equipment, cabling, and 120V secondary power
• How is it powered and maintained:
– Inductively, batteries, solar panels?
– Remote configuration, firmware upgrades, and administrative
management tools
• Communications options:
– Cellular, wireless mesh, 3rd party radios/modems
• Data accuracy:
– Does it have a pre-packaged analytics package to filter out false-positives?
• Scalability:
– When thousands are deployed, will the architecture of the platform scale?
• Ease of integration into SCADA, Historian, and DMS:
– Has the sensor vendor been able to integrate with back-office systems?
How long did integration take?
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15. Thank You!
For more information:
Email: kcorcoran@tollgrade.com or visit www.tollgrade.com
Substation Monitoring App Guide Cap Bank Monitoring App Guide Preventative Maintenance Whitepaper
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