DOE selects companies to develop low-cost transformer monitoring system

2017-12-18

 USA, California: The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) has awarded a project to develop, prototype, and demonstrate TRANSENSOR, a low-cost optically based smart transformer monitoring system, to PARC, Con Edison and GE.

TRANSENSOR (Transformer Real-time Assessment INtelligent System with Embedded Network of Sensors and Optical Readout) will increase reliability and safety by providing real-time asset health, reports Globe Newswire.

The initial focus of this project will be on the critical distribution transformers. The monitoring system will combine embedded fibre-optic sensors and intelligent algorithms to sense internal parameters, gather state information, and predict safety conditions and remaining life.

“It’s been predicted that the smart grid sensor market will reach $39 billion by 2019,” said Ajay Raghavan, PARC Research Area Manager and Principal Investigator leading the effort. “We are working on innovative low-cost embedded fibre-optic sensors that can reliably monitor conditions in a broad variety of harsh environments, including those seen in smart grids, so that we can understand the real-time state of critical systems.”

Con Edison personnel will lead the final field demonstration of TRANSENSOR.

GE personnel will play a support role in the testing for proving/qualifying TRANSENSOR on its network transformers leading to the planned field demonstration with Con Edison.

Source: Globe Newswire