Adding Intelligence to the "SMART" GRID. Development of international markets through key strategic partnerships and licensing agreements
Our company has developed and deployed a state-of-the-art "smart" electric sensor platform that gives electric utilities real-time inputs on various parameters giving them increased situational awareness into their distribution circuits that provides them an opportunity to turn this data into actionable outcomes.
Our company's current sensor platform (the GS-250) supports four specific uses for quickly delivering real return on investment (ROI) to electric utilities:
• Fault Detection, Location and Rapid Restoration which can have an immediate impact on the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) and the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) reliability metrics (the energy Policy Act of 2005 requires the utility industry to significantly improve network reliability and outage response, which incorporates fines to ensure) and high-precision calculated fault location. This leads to more efficient use of restoration resources (lineman), more rapid power restoration and improvements in outage performance.
• Power Quality Monitoring as an immediate use as a distribution planning tool and use as a dynamic feedback mechanism. In essence a data source for Distribution Management Systems (DMS) and data historians.
• Asset Management for preserving the very aged infrastructure (average 40+ years) and cost savings in operations and maintenance (moving from time based to condition based management) extending asset useful life without introducing additional operational risks. In addition, the GS-250 is a relatively inexpensive (compared to current technology) form of substation automation helping to protect those 40-60% of substations currently with no automation (no awareness).
• Vegetation Management allowing for situational awareness along extent of distribution lines between regular cycle times allowing utilities to address specific hot spots ahead of power disruptions. Besides the immediate returns from the GS-250 sensor platform data, the accumulation of data over extended periods of time will become increasingly valuable as predictive analytics help drive additional savings, reduce operational risks, extend asset useful life, and increase network reliability. Our Sensor Platform Advantage Grid Sentry has just under 1,500 deployed units across 52 utilities in the United States and Canada.
We believe that our line sensor platform is superior to the competition as supported by the following factors:
• Casing Size and Weight – a lot of engineering in a unit that weighs less than the competition.
• Patented Casing Shape – minimizes the accumulation of ice and snow avoiding weight buildup and its aerodynamic shape helps minimize the impact of wind loading and potential line “gallop”.
• Patented Clamp Mechanism – allows securing the sensor platform on all sizes of distribution lines from .198” to 1.14” and can be installed via hot stick. The clamp also allows the platform to be moved from one location to another.
• Proprietary Conductive Casing Material – Shields the platform against lightning strikes and other high voltage occurrences which protects the sensor’s on board electronics AND the electric distribution lines the sensor is mounted to. Each competitor product requires the purchase and installation of a separate device to offer the same protection.
• All Communications Options – direct DNPS, cellular, wireless and satellite available.
• Unrestricted Data Flow – No need for additional software to be installed by the utility, data can flow direct to the utility or be hosted on a separate platform.