Two California-based companies, GridSense and On-Ramp Wireless, have joined forces—and product lines— to offer utilities an easily deployable, cost-effective way to wirelessly monitor their distribution transformers, as they handle the energy fluctuations and demands of the 21st century.
The comprehensive system, which will be pilot-tested in 2Q2011, combines the GridSense TransformerIQTM platform with On-Ramp's Ultra-Link ProcessingTM (ULP) product.
The TransformerIQTM represents a quick retrofit solution. It can be installed onto existing energized distribution transformers, for a relatively low-cost system upgrade without the impact of an outage or downtime. The equipment enables utilities to deploy secure and reliable monitoring throughout their distribution network, which can locate faults and outages, capture power thefts, and act as a hub for demand-side load management.
Ultra-Link ProcessingTM, a wireless radio system with very high receiver capability, has been purpose-built to solve the challenges of sensor/device monitoring, metering, and asset tracking in large cities, underground, and in other difficult radio environments. The technology addresses problems—such as coverage and capacity, robustness, interference, and security— that can limit wide-scale deployment of wireless sensors and metering devices.
On-Ramp’s ULP can support 20,000 TransformerIQ monitors per access point. This provides capacity to spare for other distribution automation applications, and securely delivers transformer data to a utility’s back office OMS (Outage Management System)/DMS (Delivery Management System).
Together, they deliver a powerful sensing and reporting solution that makes it possible for utilities to improve SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index) metrics through predictive maintenance and intervention prior to failure.
“By partnering with On-Ramp, we are able to provide utilities with next-generation ‘smart-enabled’ transformers, capable of providing access to a large network of assets,” said Lindon Shiao, CEO of GridSense. “Without this information, they risk their reliability standards and their customers’ satisfaction.”
“This partnership will bring substantial and long-awaited benefits [to] utilities,” said Joaquin Silva, President and CEO of On-Ramp. “Together we will enable monitoring on below-ground transformers, without external antennas, which have previously been unreachable by wireless technology.”
Cheryl Kaften is an accomplished communicator who has written for consumer and corporate audiences. She has worked extensively for MasterCard (News - Alert) Worldwide, Philip Morris USA (Altria), and KPMG, and has consulted for Estee Lauder and the Philadelphia Inquirer Newspapers. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Stefanie Mosca
