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Physical Security & Monitoring


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...

Substation Automation


Future-proofing Substations with Ethernet Technologies

Nine steps to help develop a future-proof infrastructure for your substation BY TIM WALLAERT, Belden Substations with Ethernet technologies: the convergence of industrial Ethernet technologies, Smart Grid practices and the increased need for security has provided an opportunity for power utilities...

Substation Protection


Protective Relay Frustrations

Solving misoperation with line parameter measurements BY WILL KNAPEK, OMICRON USA Between 80 to 90 percent of all power system faults involve ground. Many protective relaying schemes depend on ground distance protection to accurately sense and locate ground faults on multi-terminal sub-transmission...

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 minimize outages. A...

Breakers & Relays


Gas-insulated Switchgear Options for Substations

Switching gears in the underground BY PETR RUDENKO AND PETER GLAUBITZ, Siemens As demand for energy continues to rise, an increased number of locations around the world require suitable energy solutions that fulfill unique demands. Cities are growing, and so is the demand for power. Urban areas...

Lightning Protection


Lightning Strikes

In Canada, lightning flashes occur about 2.34 million times a year; with the highest levels of concentration during the summer months. While most lightning on earth is ground-to-cloud,  recent research has identified that the majority of lightning events to tall structures, such as wind turbines,...

Electrical Substations

Partial Discharge & Circuit Breaker Asset Management

Detecting and avoiding preventable failures

BY JAY GARNETT, Doble Engineering Company

While metal clad switchgear can be very reliable, sometimes operating for over 50 years, throughout the aging process, this group of electrical disconnect switches, fuses and circuit breakers can experience issues such as moisture ingress, animal intrusion, enclosure rusting, and insulation deterioration. One efficient approach to detect incipient failures is partial discharge (PD), a leading indicator of various failure modes. Using both acoustic and...

Electrical Substations Articles