Synaptec webinar series: Centralised protection and monitoring of transmission substations

Find out how Synaptec’s centralised busbar protection systems enable rapid deployment of digital substations, and how the improved quality and frequency of data is fuelling digital twins. By avoiding the need for dedicated merging units, this solution has a lower carbon footprint than conventional systems, and the passive sensing technique is not affected by outages.

How do we simplify busbar protection schemes?

Distributed electro-mechanical sensing technology opens up a simpler way to deploy new or retrofitted digital substations – which avoids many painstaking cost and time barriers for utilities. Dedicated Merging Units (MUs) and their required supporting hardware, are no longer required. Instead, all sensor measurements are passively collected using existing optical fibre (up to 16 three-phase voltages or currents, per fibre) and delivered to a central IED. A centralised protection approach can also readily be applied to further consolidate substation functions. This leads to important reductions in both the carbon footprint and physical footprint. There are dramatically fewer substation devices to configure and maintain, so the management of IEC 61850 configuration files is far simpler.

What are the benefits of inputting better data into digital twins with the same system?

Digital twins present a new opportunity for the power industry to manage HV assets more cost effectively. Synaptec’s technology is particularly useful for digital twins because it streams more high quality and synchronous data from more assets to build a more comprehensive picture of asset and system performance over time. Delivered centrally in standard formats, our high-fidelity electro-mechanical our systems are now being used to automate condition monitoring and feed digital twins with better data to optimise scheduled maintenance of HV assets.