current/voltage sensor for distrubution automation 1

[EvilJeb]

I thought I posted this question last night, but I guess I hit the wrong button or something.

A couple of months ago, I visited a web page from a small company that makes these things, they're like a crossarm that you would mount on a pole with a 3-phase power line, but each insulator has a current sensor built in. I think this thing also had voltage sensors, and I'm sure it had communications capability built in, so you could mount it on a pole out in the boonies and it would report back to your central office what the current and voltage are out there.

Well, I didn't bookmark the page because at the time I didn't realize we needed this thing, or how hard it would be to find again.

Where can I find this? Or what search terms can I use on Google? I tried "Crossarm current voltage sensor distribution automation" and various combinations of those words, but I never found any result like I'm looking for. I just looked through my old page-view history and failed to find this, but I know I saw it before.

 

[DTR2011]

I believe S&C makes something like this for circuit switcher applications.

 

[waross]

"Crossarm current voltage sensor distribution automation"
Try your search with a lot fewer words.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

 

[EvilJeb]

Thanks for the tip about the S&C circuit switcher. I was able to use that as a starting point for better directed search terms, and I found these, which are closer to what I am looking for:

http://www.powersense.dk/Download/Datasheet/medium_voltage_monitoring_without_lv_supply.pdf

http://www.motorola.com/web/Busines...ng Self Awareness to the Grid.pdf?localeId=33

They aren't exactly what I found before, but they're useful starting points for further searching later. Thank you!

 

[stevenal]

http://www.seecoswitch.com/sensorcsvs.htm

You'll need your own crossarm.

 

[EvilJeb]

A few weeks ago, I asked for information on anything that could be used to monitor power flow, and installed as a self-contained system, mounted on a pole, out on a power line anywhere instead of located at a substation.

Since then I have found links to several items that look like they could be useful for down-line monitoring. Here are the links I found that seem most useful.

First of all, there's an article in Transmission and Distribution World called Line Intelligence Feeds the Smart Grid. They explain some uses that an electric distribution utility has found for such equipment, but they don't provide any brand names or specifications on exactly what equipment was used.

The big companies, such as Siemens and Motorola, have pages explaining their ability to do whatever a customer might like done in the smart-grid arena. (The Motorola link is the same one I posted already in another reply.)

Here is the S&C ScadaMate switch, an automated remote-control switch with monitoring, that smallgreek referenced above.

Cooper Power has a simlar automated switch for medium-voltage lines. It can monitor current, voltage, power factor, and harmonics.
Cooper M-Force Switch

And here is another company that has nice-looking brochures for switchgear, monitoring, and control including automatic reconfiguration, but I think they are based in Saudi Arabia:
Lucy Gemini

There are also some newer products from smaller companies that seem to offer a competitive solution:

This system from Airak has all required sensors, and electronics to interface with a standard ethernet or fiber connection.

The GridSense LineIQ seems to have everything - sensors that don't need a separate power supply, and a terminal unit with local or remote communications options. The company has experience in the higher voltage transmission arena, but this product is intended for either transmission or distribution.

Lindsey Manufacturing Co. sells an all-in-one crossarm mounted power monitoring system. It comes with communications and custom software, but it is unclear what protocols it supports, if you would like to interface with your own communications and/or a pre-existing SCADA system.
Other Lindsey monitoring products

Telemetric sells sensors and remote terminal units (RTU), but only for cellular-communications. They don't seem to have any other communications options, such as ethernet, fiber, or serial port. If you do want to use cellular, their RTU has generic inputs that can be used with anyone's sensors.

http://www.powersense.dk/Download/Datasheet/medium_voltage_monitoring_without_lv_supply.pdf

Again I am re-posting a link from my previous reply. This one seems to be just the sensors, without any communication option. Although it looks like they do have their own custom solution for communication, again it is unclear whether it is interoperable with other standards. They still seem to be in the evaluation phase, for marketing this system, and they are asking for pilot project partners. The interesting thing about these sensors is the range, from 5 to 20,000 amps, which allows them to be used both for normal-operation monitoring and for fault-locating.

Current and voltage sensors from Seeco, which can be used with or without a Seeco remote-controlled switch.
Seeco system overview.

Field Metrics sells components for accurate current and voltage measurement, with a wireless link to RTU or computer. To use this for remote monitoring, you would need to provide an RTU with wireless link to the sensors, and another communications link back to your office.

Here's another new company that sells only the sensors: M-Tech Line post sensor transducer system.

I listed a bunch of sensors without Remote Terminal Units. Here we have an RTU without any sensors, that might work for this application: Valquest VQ7

Or, if you want to build a truly custom solution, you could start with the integrated circuits and build your own RTU. Here is a Maxim waveform sampling IC with a fast enough sample rate to monitor 60 Hz AC waveforms.

 

[PLUSman]

Have you considered the Grid Sentry power line sensor products?