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Substation Testing & Maintenance


Condition Monitoring in an Age of Modernization How (and why) to Adapt

The widespread application and use of electricity, which may now seem like a simple commodity, is considered one of the greatest technical developments of all time. However, keeping up with today’s demand for power is anything but simple: a vast amount of resources goes into maintaining a...

Physical Security & Monitoring


Substation Security

Improve protection with a layered security approach BY ERIC BYRES, Belden Inc. An age-old joke in the North American power industry states that if Alexander Graham Bell walked in the room today, he would not recognize the telephone, the technology, or its business model. However, if Thomas Edison...

Breakers & Relays


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


Gas Dehydration

Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) insulates medium- and high-voltage switchgears around the world. In its pure form, this non-toxic, inert gas helps the power transmission & distribution (T&D) industry operate more safely by extinguishing high-temperature arcs. With a much higher...

Substation Protection


Safe Grounding in Substations

How to guard utility personnel from shock hazards BY JEFF JOWETT, Megger In the power industry, safety is just as important a function as performance. Safety considerations, parameters, and methods of implementation are an integral part of any electrical system. A most important element is the...

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...

Electrical Substations

transformer oil

Leakers, What a Mess!

Electric Substation apparatus, transformers and circuit breakers, are the workhorses of the electric transmission grid. Our focus in this article is on the issue of dielectric media leaks. Specifically, oil in large power transformers and oil or SF6 gas in power circuit breakers. Oil and gas leaks both have their share of risks to the environment.
Financial control is playing a big part in the management of the assets in today’s electric utilities. The repair...

Electrical Substations Articles