Electrical Substations

Substation Testing & Maintenance

Power Transformer Failures

Electric utilities maximize utilization of their assets, while maintaining reliability. Power transformers are typically reliable, but have been known to fail suddenly and/or prematurely. Transformer failures are both costly and can leave customers dissatisfied, harming the reputation of a utility....

Lightning Protection

Lightning Discoveries & Technologies

How this phenomenon affects electric utilities BY JIM SIEBERT, FOX 26 Chief Meteorologist Advances in technology are helping scientists understand lightning in ways that were not possible a few years ago. Beforehand, meteorologists primarily studied lightning, focusing most of their efforts on...

Breakers & Relays

Power Factor Testing of Circuit Breakers

Detecting contamination and deterioration in SF6 breakers to ensure longevity BY LINDA NOWAK, Doble Engineering Company The purpose of “Doble testing”, or power factor testing, SF6 (sulfur hexafluoride) circuit breakers is to detect the presence of contamination and/or deterioration of the...

Substation Automation

Wireless Networks and Substation Automation

Fitting wireless networks into substation automation applications BY ADAM GUGLIELMO, ABB Tropos Wireless Communication Systems As with all Smart Grid applications, two-way communication is foundational to substation automation. To enable monitoring and control, substation computers, as well as...

Substation Technologies

Advanced Automation in Substations: Enhancing Grid Reliability and Efficiency

The rapid evolution of technology has brought significant advancements in the field of electrical substations, transforming them into highly automated, efficient, and reliable components of the power grid. These advancements are crucial in managing the increasing complexities of modern power...

Physical Security & Monitoring

Integrated Security Operations Centers (ISOC)

The watchdog of electrical assets BY RALPH KING, Electric Power Research Institute Security operations centers (SOCs) are common in corporate information technology (IT), physical security, and industrial control environments. Many organizations have one or more of these individual SOCs...

Home Transformation Electrical Substations

The Digital Substation Utopia

Electric utilities have long considered digital substations an insubstantial concept: an ideal vision of all-knowing substations networked into an intelligent grid. However, technological innovations have slowly emerged in the past few decades, consequently, transforming this utopian vision into a practical—and very real—concept. Now, utility executives can discuss the available specifics that can transform legacy substations into well-networked digitally automated powerhouses.

One practical innovation, digital signaling, offers substations excellent reliability and capacity. Electric utilities have...