COMMERCIAL FEATURE SG203 FAULT PATH INDICATOR Fault Path Indicators are the latest buzzword in the industry. Considering the challenges facing the Electrical industry it could not have come sooner. 100% South African. CHALLENGES FACING ELECTRICAL UTILITIES Utilities have never in their history been confronted with so many diverse problems, performance responsibilities and mandates to supply power, as we are seeing today. The infrastructure boom, migration of workers and the need to increase GDP has driven the expectations for delivery higher than it has ever been. The utility must deliver power, at the lowest price, in the shortest time, with the least amount of expenditure. A tall order to say the least. Most utilities have cut their budgets, and are now required to do the same amount of work with a much smaller budget. So how then does the introduction of Fault Path Indicators (FPIs) help? Reduce customer dissatisfaction – Customers are happy when the power is on. Limiting the time of outages is imperative. FPIs provide valuable information of the location of the fault. The device will pick up fault current infringement, followed by the voltage loss, caused by the upstream breaker confirming the fault, and start to emit a local flash, visible from an acceptable distance. This can be remotely monitored to reduce downtime, as the exact location of the fault is then known. SAIDI – The FPI significantly reduces driving and fault finding time. It reduces the duration for fault clearance and reduces the number of customers affected for the duration of the fault, and therefore reduces SAIDI. SAIFI – FPIs provide transient fault data. This information allows the utility to ascertain which parts of their networks are the worst performing and to plan maintenance to reduce unplanned interruptions. The frequency of outages is reduced significantly, due to the proactive intervention by the utility. Figure 2 shows the 24 hour operation of the solar panels during Coupled with the sunlight above benefit, the utility THE NEW GENERATION FAULT PATH also now gets valuable information like INDICATOR (FPI) number of outages, current demand, The new FPI has become voltage fluctuation, line temperature, a far more intelligent and galloping conductor or possible device, capable of downed conductor. This data is then much more than used to maintain the network. Utilities its predecessor. can now spend the little money they Included are the have, to fix the most problematic parts of advanced features the network, giving them the maximum of temperature benefit, while proving increased network sensing, availability, reliability and visibility. voltage monitoring, FAULT PATH INDICATORS current Legacy Fault Path Indicators monitoring, 3-axis accelerometer, The purpose of this device was to harmonics analysis and even waveform indicate if a fault had passed through it. capture. It comes complete with an Located in the correct part of the network, integrated RTU, GPRS communication, it would pick up fault condition and start GPS location information and solar to flash. This significantly reduces the panel. time for locating of faults by reducing The latest solar technology is used the amount of time spent sectionalising to power the unit and is integrated in various parts of the network. the solution, for ease of installation and In the next phase manufacturers compact design. Maximum Power Point added some technology to remotely Tracking technology enables us to have collect fault information from these the most efficient use of the solar panels devices. There is some very difficult and the best care when charging the terrain in which to find faults in the batteries. network, coupled with difficulty of The solar panels are placed on the access and the resources to do the device in such a way that it harnesses work. Utilities could at this stage the best of the sunlight needed to charge send linesmen to the exact T-Offs the batteries, for the longest time. where the fault occurred, reducing Our device uses an incredibly low driving time and the resources 20mA in normal mode, giving the device needed for fault finding, and exceptional battery usage and uptime. ESI avoiding unnecessary inaccessibility Figure 1 shows the results of a case study. Outage time indicated is in minutes. 30 problems. This technology phase showed a significant drop in the fault finding time, which is conventionally done by trial and error. ADC Energy Email: trevor@adcenergy.co.za ESI AFRICA ISSUE 4 2014