DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT

CURRENT Distribution Management applications provide utilities unprecedented, Actionable Intelligence™ on the devices in the distribution network based on real-time sensing from throughout the distribution grid.   This Actionable Intelligence enables better planning, condition-based asset maintenance, operational improvements, and enhanced outage prevention, detection and restoration. The result is lower operating and capital costs, reduced outage time and improved customer satisfaction.

Examples of the benefits of CURRENT Distribution Management include:

• Operational Improvements
  Real-time analytics highlight operational issues that can cause problems on the electric grid.   Potential equipment failures, safety issues and overload situations are highlighted and if necessary, crews can be dispatched automatically through the work order system.  Control room operators have specific information regarding the real time situation throughout the grid.   Field crews can remotely receive specific information about the issue including location, the performance of neighboring assets and recommended requirements of any replacement parts electronically.  
• More Accurate Planning and Condition Based Asset Maintenance
  Through continual monitoring, utilities are able to properly size distribution transformers, identify overloaded or underutilized assets, predict potential failures and create intelligence to monitor asset performance and life.
• Customer Reliability & Satisfaction
  Dramatically reduce outages and their durations, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce operating costs through identification of failing distribution system components before they cause an outage, accurate fault locations, automatic detection of customer outages, and notifications for restoration of power.

CURRENT's proven applications serve utilities that need heightened awareness and control of distribution elements to likewise optimize efficiency and customer service.

CURRENT Distribution Management Applications:

• Distribution Transformer Failure Detection – The CURRENT Distribution Transformer Failure application uses algorithms to automatically detect pending transformer failure.
• Secondary Neutral Failure Detection – The CURRENT Secondary Neutral Failure application uses algorithms to automatically detect secondary neutral failures.
• Transient Voltage Disturbances Detection - This CURRENT Smart Grid™ application utilizes voltage sensing at the transformer to generate exception reports that indicate voltage regulation problems well before any customer complaints.
• Distribution Transformer Overload Detection – The CURRENT Distribution Transformer Overload application provides several stages of alarms for transformer overloading including:
  • Acute Transformer Overload
  • Duration Transformer Overload
  • Transformer Equivalent Load
  • Transformer Sizing
• URD Fault Detection – The CURRENT URD Fault Detection application incorporates current sensors on the incoming primary leg of URD transformers. These sensors utilize a technology different from traditional current transformers, and provide accurate measurements of current up to 10,000 amperes. This information is combined with fault detection alarms from other affected transformers to identify the precise cable segment that has faulted.
• Outage and Restoration Detection - The CURRENT Outage and Restoration Detection application utilizes the sensing and monitoring functions of the Smart Grid network to report outage and restoration events on the electric distribution system.