This technology allows a utility to automate its electromechanical substations without the high cost of a microprocessor panel upgrade.
Acquiring communications and data in an electromechanical substation typically requires a utility to perform a wholesale upgrade of the entire panel to microprocessor relays, which can be very costly. The cost to upgrade a substation includes extensive engineering time, new relays and panels, complete rewiring of the substation, and in some cases, additional real estate. ABB now offers a time and cost saving solution - Intelligent Data Sensor technology.
By simply attaching a small, non-intrusive, clamp-on AC/DC sensor to the relay wires and connecting its Cat5 cable to the supplied recording switch, real-time analog and digital information is readily available for analysis. The sensor is highly sensitive to a resolution of 10 microseconds and is capable of sensing millisecond transients with a 2% accuracy range. This clamp-on sensor, coupled with our waveform data analysis, is capable of fast line restoration, fault and disturbance analysis, and real time monitoring of evolving loads - all without the costs involved in upgrading to microprocessors.