Electrical Substations

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...

Substation Protection

Storm-Hardened Switchgear

How to protect electrical equipment from Mother Nature BY ROBERT A. MURPHY, Trayer Engineering Corporation The U.S. National Weather Service called Hurricane Sandy the most destructive storm of 2012’s unusually active Atlantic hurricane season. Sandy delivered unprecedented damage across a wide...

Substation Technologies

Utilizing Fault Resistance to Test Distance Relays

Taking power grid protection to an all-new level BY JASON BUNEO & RENE AGUILAR, Megger The testing of distance relays has evolved from testing simple electromechanical relays to the newest modern microprossesor relays. Most modern relays employ advanced algorithms that not only compare the...

Physical Security & Monitoring

The Fight Against Animal-Caused Power Outages

Every day across North America, animals enter electrical substations in search of warmth, food, shelter, or simply out of curiosity. What often begins as routine wildlife behaviour can escalate quickly into serious grid reliability issues. In many service territories, wildlife intrusion is now the...

Substation Testing & Maintenance

Electrical Substation Maintenance

Improving safety and methodology techniques to protect utility workers BY LARRY LAWRENCE, Lineman’s Testing Laboratories of Canada In 1990, many workplace safety hazards were consistently ignored as if they were “acceptable risk” and an expected part of a worker’s daily routine. Not...

Substation Automation

Transmission Planning for Grid Security

Recent physical attacks on substations have heightened the industry’s awareness of the necessity for physical security of critical facilities on the bulk power system. The goal of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) reliability...

Home Transformation Electrical Substations

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 broader cyber-physical infrastructure. While these technologies enable real-time control and improved reliability, they also expose utilities to cyber threats that can disrupt critical services and damage essential assets.
Ensuring the cybersecurity of substation networks is...