Electrical Substations

Lightning Protection

FERC Approves Interconnection for Talen Energy, Amazon Data Center

In a significant move that underscores the growing demand for reliable and sustainable energy to power the expanding digital infrastructure, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved an interconnection agreement between Talen Energy, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Exelon. This...

Substation Automation

Smart Grid in North and South America

Market developments toward grid modernization 17% Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) at which the U.S. SCADA market revenue is expected to grow during the 2014 to 2020 period At this point, the CAGR for U.S. SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) market revenue has increased from $0.8...

Physical Security & Monitoring

Animal Mitigation for Electric Utilities

Prevent animal- and bird-caused outages to improve reliability BY MARTY NILES, Cantega Technologies Utilities in North America are under enormous pressure from regulators, customers, and investors to improve reliability performance. Many of the mergers and acquisitions of utilities around North...

Substation Technologies

Extend the Life of Your Circuit Breakers

What to ask to ensure proper circuit breaker testing and maintenance BY ROBERT FOSTER, Megger Protecting a utility’s assets is essential. There are many different apparatus in electrical substations that need to be protected. The circuit breaker (CB) is designed to stop the flow of...

Substation Protection

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...

Breakers & Relays

Circuit Breaker Time and Motion Testing

Determining mechanical condition of high-voltage circuit breakers BY JOZEF LEVI, Doble Engineering Company Life expectancy of a newly installed high-voltage circuit breaker is approximately 40 years. Throughout its life, under normal circuit conditions, the circuit breaker will operate less than...

Home Transformation Electrical Substations

Detect Electrical Discharge Defects with Ultrasound

Electrical discharge is more common than we’d like to believe; even in new installations. Detecting these defects poses a serious challenge, particularly at an early stage when there is still time to initiate corrective actions. Vigilant technologies help reduce the risk of arc flash explosion while enhancing the overall reliability of electrical assets.
While there is no one perfect inspection technique or technology which can, on its own, detect and localize every defect, ultrasound performs...