Performance of a Large Scale Fault Monitoring System During Storm Conditions

This UK Utility made a strategic decision to invest in monitoring equipment and use the resultant data to evaluate plant and network performance and identify defects and weaknesses in the system to allow early remedial actions to be taken.

Fault recorders were first introduced to the transmission system in the 1980s and they now have a fleet of 380 devices. Units installed since the early 1990s are multifunction devices offering conventional fault recording, slow scan monitoring, power quality recording and, more recently, synchrophasor measurements . Real time values of power, voltage and current are also transmitted to the substation RTU via modbus or 61850 protocols for SCADA use. This replaces the need for separate transducers and the investment for regular maintenance and calibration.

Recorders are present in nearly all 400KV, 275KV and 132KV substations monitoring lines, transformers and circuit breakers. Units are also installed in many generating stations from large nuclear sites to small 30MW windfarms.