SWEDE 2014 Remote Monitoring of Faults – Frank Daniel (Oncor)

Remotely Monitored FCIs What are they?? Fault Eliminators Permanent Fault, locators Track momentary faults for future problems Track maximum and minimum load current on rural lines 2

Why monitor faults remotely?? Faster Fault Location Reduced travel time Overall SAIDI improvements Less stress on substation transformers Collect information on the condition of the line 3

Scenarios for Remote Fault Monitoring Long rural lines ◦East Texas  Trees – Trees – Trees  River Bottoms  Lakes  Split feeds  Just past reclosers ◦West Texas  One three foot tree  Long lines in oil field areas 4

Scenarios for Remote Fault Monitoring continued Long Underground Get-A-Ways ◦Reduce close-in fault on Substation Transformer ◦Faster restoration Long underground dips on Overhead Feeders Total underground circuits Split feeder near substation 5

Phase One Project Installed fault indicators at 33 locations ◦East Texas  Long rural lines ◦West Texas  Oil field locations Cooper Power Systems / Eaton ◦Outage Advisor FCIs 6

Requirements Minimum Fault level Must have 3 amps of line current for charging Cell phone coverage ◦Field test conducted before installation 7

Project Goals Gain experience in deploying remotely monitored FCIs Determine impact to SAIDI Determine reliability of Cell Phone communications Determine how well units hold up to field conditions 8

Survey How many of you have good handle of maximum load on sections of line? How many of you have good handle of minimum load on same sections? 9

Lessons Learned Cell Phone coverage and reliability was good SAIDI Improvements hard to track ◦ Faults reported to date Don’t assume anything ◦Minimum Fault current ◦Minimum Load current Equipment design flaws (First out of the box – Serial Number “1”) Work with Cell Provider for low rates 10

2014 Directions Lab and field test second generation replacement units Evaluate fault indicators from Power Delivery Products ◦Requires external power ◦Supports up to 12 FCIs per location (150 feet) ◦Lab test trial unit before making next step Install FCIs at approximately 30 locations in Metroplex 11

2014 Directions Continued Install all of the thirty locations in the Metroplex ◦Long underground get-a-ways ◦Long sections of underground in overhead feeders ◦Total underground feeders ◦Split feeds near substation or adjacent feeders Replace defective units with replacements after lab test are complete 12

Goals for 2014 Adequately lab test as well as field test replacement units Test second supplier hardware and install in field Determine by the end of the year if remote fault monitoring is beneficial enough to expand in 2015 and beyond Evaluate SAIDI savings if possible Continue to evaluate new options 13

That’s all Folks Questions 14