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Substation Protection


The Fight Against Animal-Caused Substation Outages

Every day across the country, animals enter substations for warmth, food, security, or simply out of curiosity. In many areas, wildlife intruding into power equipment has become the leading cause of outages – even more common than storms or vegetation. A single substation outage can cost tens...

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 Technologies


New data suggests real-time pricing can help customers save money

Most utility customers now pay an average price for electricity that changes little (if at all) over the course of the year. Average, flat-rate, real-time pricing is akin to a form of insurance, where a premium is paid to hedge against market volatility and price spikes. Yet this approach misses...

Substation Automation


SUBSTATION AUTOMATION AND INTEGRATION PROGRAMS

Newton-Evans Research Company, Inc. of Ellicott City, MD is preparing to publish market research findings from Volume 1 of a four-volume study, “The World Market for Substation Automation and Integration Programs in Electric Utilities: 2017-2020.” Volume 1 of this Substation Automation...

Physical Security & Monitoring


Preventing Losses Due to Wildlife Contacts in Electrical Substations

Intrusion of wildlife into electric substations is a problem experienced by electric utilities worldwide. In the United States, substation outages caused by wildlife contacts create a financial impact of approximately $20 to $30 billion annually based upon recent EPRI research. This impact is the...

Electrical Substations

Reducing Nuisance Alarm Rates from On-Site Security Systems

The physical security of electrical generation, transmission, and distribution sites is critical. The potential risks of a security failure are clear: disruption to service, damage to equipment, and intruder fatalities.
To prevent costly incidents and meet the National Electrical Reliability Commission’s Critical Infrastructure Protection regulations (NERC CIP-014), electrical utilities need reliable, cost-effective physical security solutions. For these solutions to be a success, they must:

  • Reliably detect and deter would-be intruders.
  • Enhance intrusion assessment and response...

Electrical Substations Articles