Electrical Substations

Substation Automation

Cybersecurity in Modern Substations: Protecting the Grid from Emerging Threats

As substations become more interconnected and automated, they are increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks. These critical nodes of the power grid are essential for ensuring a stable and reliable energy supply, making their protection paramount. Strengthening substation automation controls is key to...

Substation Testing & Maintenance

Substation Maintenance Best Practices

Improving substation maintenance best practices for greater success BY BUDO MILOVIC, DV-Power Currently, substation maintenance—regular or emergency—operations and best practices must fit the utility’s goal of accomplishing more with less, in order to maximize assets and...

Substation Protection

SCADA for Substations

How new technologies can improve monitoring and control BY LOURENCO TEODORO, InduSoft Substations are a critical component for maintaining electrical supply and load control in low voltage, medium voltage and high voltage electrical distribution networks. In order to ensure the proper functioning...

Breakers & Relays

Protection of Electrical Power Transformers

INTRODUCTIONIn most large electrical systems, generators and power transformers are the two most expensive pieces of equipment. In addition to the capital cost of purchase, these two key devices are also the most critical to continuous and reliable operation of the system.Consider, for example, the...

Physical Security & Monitoring

FERC Rejects PJM Transmission Planning Change

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has rejected a proposal from PJM Interconnection, one of the United States' largest regional transmission organizations, to alter its transmission planning protocol. The decision represents a significant victory for state regulators who had expressed...

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...

Home Transformation Electrical Substations

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 of thousands of dollars in equipment repair or replacement, man-hours and more. The annual cost to utility companies of recovering from animal-related outages is estimated in the billions...