Electricity Forum Intelligent Power Today Magazine Arc Flash Clothing
Electricity Today T&D Magazine
Archives

News and Trends

Latest News From The T&D Industry

Shipping: Global Trade’s Dirty Secret

Shipping is the backbone of global trade, transporting over 80% of goods worldwide. However, this essential industry is also a significant contributor to environmental degradation, particularly in the context of climate change.

The Environmental Impact of Shipping

The shipping industry is responsible for approximately 3% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a figure that surpasses that of many individual countries. In Canada alone, marine shipping emitted 8 million tonnes of CO₂ in 2019 . These...

Popular T&D Articles

focus on environment

T&D Buyer's Guide

T&D News

T&D Trends

Utility News

New York's Path to 8.5 GW of Grid Flexibility by 2040

New York State's transition to a clean, zero-emissions energy grid could include up to 8.5 gigawatts (GW) of grid flexibility by 2040, according to a new report from the Brattle Group. This projection, while contingent on achieving ambitious decarbonization goals, illustrates how the state could...
Utility News

Clean Energy Stakeholders Push to Preserve IRA Tax Credits

As the U.S. energy landscape shifts towards cleaner, renewable sources, stakeholders in the solar, storage, and broader clean energy sectors are intensifying their lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C., aiming to secure the future of critical tax incentives introduced under the Inflation Reduction...

Electrical Substations

Vacuum Interrupter Testing for Circuit Breakers

How to predict field life using vacuum interrupters

BY FINLEY LEDBETTER, Group CBS

Utilities have widely replaced older air-magnetic and oil interrupters for circuit breakers rated at one kilovolt (kV) or higher with vacuum interrupters (VI) due to higher interrupt capability. Vacuum interrupters also last up to 10 times the expected lifetime than newer sulfur hexafluoride (SF-6) gas interrupters. Unfortunately, the downside to building a protective device with a long service life is that utility planners, technicians, and maintenance professionals believe it will last forever.

However, that misconception, plus the difficulty in field testing VIs, has placed a large portion of the U.S. industrial and utility distribution switchgear at risk of failure. Luckily, several traditional “pass/fail” testing methods and one new “predictive” field-testing method exist for verifying the isolation capability of VI-protected circuit breakers and motor controls. These three testing methods are covered in detail in this...

Electrical Substations Articles

Substation Protection

Safe Grounding in Substations

How to guard utility personnel from shock hazards BY JEFF JOWETT, Megger In the power industry, safety is just as important a function as performance. Safety considerations, parameters, and methods of implementation are an integral part of any electrical system. A most important element is the...

Cybersecurity in Substation and Grid Communications

As power systems become increasingly digitized and connected, the importance of cybersecurity in substation and grid communications has grown exponentially. With the integration of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), SCADA systems, and remote monitoring, modern substations are now part of a...
Substation Technologies

Gas Dehydration

Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) insulates medium- and high-voltage switchgears around the world. In its pure form, this non-toxic, inert gas helps the power transmission & distribution (T&D) industry operate more safely by extinguishing high-temperature arcs. With a much higher...
Physical Security & Monitoring

Critter Guard

Distinctly DifferentAccording to the American Public Power Association, squirrels are among the top causes of power outages across the United States. The Great Lakes region has squirrels as the #1 cause of sustained outages. And in many cases, bird related outages are at number two.Nobody likes to...