Utility Automation & Engineering T&D articles from September 2004

Utility Automation & Engineering T&D archives from September 2004

Which candidate will champion the transmission system?(From the Editor)(Editorial)
September 1, 2004... One of the more pressing energy concerns in the United States has gotten scant attention this election year. Concern over the health of the North American electric transmission system--such a hot-button topic just a year ago in the wake of the...

Phasor Project goes live in eastern U.S.(News)
September 1, 2004... A new integrated data network in the Eastern power grid is intended to help avoid a repeat of the August 2003 blackout. The Eastern Interconnection Phasor Project (EIPP) went live this summer providing the first real-time, system-wide data...

Matrix Fault Current Limiter passes proof-of-concept tests.(News)
September 1, 2004... Successful proof-of-concept tests have been conducted on a new high-temperature superconducting 'power valve' that is intended to protect utility transmission grids from damaging power surges. SuperPower, the energy technology subsidiary...

3M and CTC cables get first commercial applications.(News)
September 1, 2004... 3M's new aluminum composite conductor reinforced (ACCR), an overhead power conductor that reportedly doubles the electrical transmission capacity of conventional conductors of the same diameter, will receive its first commercial application...

Arizona co-op expects savings from AMR system.(News)(automatic meter reading )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative (SSVEC) has begun deployment of Hunt Technologies' TS1 automatic meter reading (AMR) system to about 12,000 of its rural members. Based in Willcox, Ariz., the co-op supplies power to the majority of...

Otter Tail Power installs monitoring and reporting solution.(News)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Minnesota-based Otter Tail Power Co. has completed the first phase of a new interruption monitoring system for its distribution system. Telemetric Corp. provided a complete monitoring system including intelligent Telemetric Voltage Monitoring...

Nevada Power.(Contract Awards and Extensions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Nevada Power has awarded an $11 million contract to ABB to supply dead-tank circuit breakers. The breakers will be installed in 2006 at the Mead substation, south of Hoover Dam.

Entergy Corp.(Contract Awards and Extensions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Entergy Corp. has awarded three flexible ac transmission system (FACTS) projects to Siemens Power T & D. The projects include two static VAR compensators and one fixed-series capacitor that will be built at three primary Entergy substations in...

OG & E Electric Services.(Contract Awards and Extensions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... OG & E Electric Services of Oklahoma City is proceeding with expansion of its substation monitoring system using Cannon Technologies' Substation Advisor and Esubstation products. Cannon has received an order from OG & E to add the systems to...

Georgia Power Co.(Contract Awards and Extensions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Georgia Power Co. has awarded a multi-million dollar contract to Mitsubishi Electric Power Products for the design, manufacture, supply, installation and commissioning of a transmission-level static VAR compensator (SVC) system to provide...

Southern Illinois Power Co-op (SIPC).(Contract Awards and Extensions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Southern Illinois Power Co-op (SIPC) has awarded a contract to Open Systems International for a replacement SCADA/EMS. The system will be installed in the SIPC operations control center in Marion, Ill., to replace an existing SCADA system.

DTE Energy.(Contract Awards and Extensions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... DTE Energy of Detroit has selected MDSI Mobile Data Solutions' Advantex r7 software to help the company manage field operations for its electric and gas divisions.

International Transmission Co.(Contract Awards and Extensions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... International Transmission Co. has ordered two D-VAR transmission grid reliability systems from American Superconductor Corp. and GE Energy. The units will be installed in a 120-kV transmission system in east-central Michigan in two separate...

Enspiria Solutions.(Alliances, Mergers and Acquisitions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Enspiria Solutions has acquired the U.S. and Canadian Convergent Group businesses from Atos Origin. Convergent Group provides consulting and systems integration services to utilities and telecom customers.

GE Energy has acquired the assets of three business unites of S.D. Myers Inc.(Alliances, Mergers and Acquisitions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... GE Energy has acquired the assets of three business unites of S.D. Myers Inc. The three units are Ohio Transformer, a provider of transformer repair, rewind and re-manufacturing services; S.D. Myers Substation Services, a supplier of field...

GE Energy also recently completed its acquisition of Fluidex Engineering of South Africa.(Alliances, Mergers and Acquisitions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... GE Energy also recently completed its acquisition of Fluidex Engineering of South Africa. Fluidex is a developer of advanced technology in transformer oil processing and one of the world's largest manufacturers of transformer oil regeneration...

Cooper Power Systems and Cargill Industrial Oils and Lubricants.(Alliances, Mergers and Acquisitions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Cooper Power Systems and Cargill Industrial Oils and Lubricants have entered into an alliance that will result in increased production of Cooper's Envirotemp FR3 fluid, which is used as an insulating fluid in distribution transformers. North...

Telvent.(Alliances, Mergers and Acquisitions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Telvent, an IT solutions provider, and Miner & Miner, a provider and implementer of GIS software, have formed a partnership to jointly provide enterprise GIS products and IT services to utilities worldwide.

Bad weather vs. power reliability: progress Florida seeks to normalize reliability indices.(Cover Story)
September 1, 2004... Reliability indices gauge how well a utility uses incremental resources to benefit its customers. Reliability indices are also among the key factors by which regulators judge most utilities and determine whether they can justify rate increases....

Improving asset management with mobile computing.
September 1, 2004... Locating, reporting and managing the millions of assets that reside in the field has become a daunting challenge for utility companies due to increased regulatory reporting requirements, decreased investment in IT solutions over the past 15...

Connexus Energy field inspectors brave the elements.
September 1, 2004... Within four minutes of exposure to an ambient temperature of 48 degrees Fahrenheit, the average human hand begins showing signs that all is not well. Blood vessels constrict. As the temperature falls, fingers go numb. Dexterity suffers....

SRP empowers field force with mobile computing.(Salt River Project )
September 1, 2004... Most power-and-water utility company executives would be delighted to trade their boxes of Pepcid and bottles of Tums for the kind of "problems" facing managers at Arizona-based Salt River Project (SRP). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Mobile computing/GIS technology.(Special Advertising Section)(Geographic information systems)
September 1, 2004... Thames Water is leveraging spatial information to deliver better customer service and save money. How can your company's spatial information help you? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Thames Water, based in London, is part of the RWE Group, a...

Meeker Cooperative continues to extend its GIS.(Special Advertising Section)(Meeker Cooperative Light and Power Association)
September 1, 2004... More than just a brainy engineering tool, GIS has many applications for cooperatives. With its geodatabase in place, Meeker Cooperative is using GIS for facilities management, outage response, staking, field service, vehicle location, and even...

Enersource Hydro Mississauga chooses Intergraph solution to maximize ROI and maintain top-quality customer service.(Special Advertising Section)(Return On Investment )
September 1, 2004... Maintaining an excellent safety record in the face of rapid expansion, Enersource Hydro Mississauga provides efficient delivery and system reliability to its growing base of electric customers in the city of Mississauga, Ontario. The electric...

MDS wireless mobile data solutions for field force automation.(Special Advertising Section)
September 1, 2004... Empowering field service teams with an MDS wireless mobile data solution means more efficient operations, lower costs, decreased service windows and increased customer satisfaction. An organization's fixed network can now be wirelessly and...

Managing your way out of the T & D maintenance squeeze.(Transmission and Distribution)
September 1, 2004... Utility managers are in a tough spot. At the same time their power lines are being pushed to the limits, they face unrelenting pressure to reduce costs and improve the bottom line. Then, there is the additional pressure from their customers to...

Protective relay usage trends.(Electric power system protection)
September 1, 2004... Between the blackout of last August, and the potential for sabotage by those who would do us harm, electric power systems protection and control activities have taken on a renewed sense of urgency. Information collected during the mid-2004...

Care and feeding: AMR maintenance for electric utilities.(Getting Equipped)(automatic meter reading)
September 1, 2004... Compared to maintaining non-communicating meters, automatic meter reading (AMR) is quite different for most utilities to manage, especially fixed network systems (advanced metering infrastructures). The technology adds some complexity and skill...

LAN Gateway.(New Products)
September 1, 2004... The eLAN Universal DNP Gateway, from Bow Networks, combines several of Bow's proven eLAN software modules into an easy-to-configure, off-the-shelf solution to a wide range of DNP communications applications, including data concentration, device...

Assessment system.(New Products)
September 1, 2004... DCSI's Outage Assessment System (OASys) leverages the TWACS system connectivity data to provide electric utilities with valuable outage and distribution system reliability information. Outage assessment tasks, schedules and sampling groups are...

AMR Wireless Monitor.(New Products)
September 1, 2004... Advanced AMR's 8650 Commercial AMR Wireless Monitor is used for collecting energy information from commercial and industrial electrical meters. Working in conjunction with Advanced AMR's Energy Information and Control System (EICS), the 8650...

Laptop computer.(New Products)
September 1, 2004... The GoBook III laptop computer, from Itronix Corporation, is a wireless, rugged laptop computer for mission-critical mobile applications. The GoBook III is based on the latest generation of Intel Centrino mobile technology and includes the...

Analysis Software.(New Products)
September 1, 2004... Elster Electricity's Metercat Software 1.6 is an advanced configuration and analysis software application that programs and reads Elster's A3 ALPHA electricity meter and supports maintenance tasks for the REX meter, Elster's electronic...

Omni-Rupter Switches.(New Products)
September 1, 2004... S & C's Omni-Rupter Switches have been successfully tested and are now certified for 3/4-inch ice-breaking capability. S & C's Switch Products Division decided to take a proactive approach to proposed changes to the National Electric Safety...

Cross arm tester.(New Products)
September 1, 2004... The THOR System, developed jointly by AIR2, LLC and Entergy's Transmission Services Technology Delivery Group, tests the strength of wooden cross arms. THOR is deployed by helicopter and provides a means of rapidly, accurately and...

Revenue meters.(New Products)
September 1, 2004... Electro Industries/Gaugetech's new series of socket and switchboard-based revenue meters are based on the popular Nexus platforms. This product adds over 200 new features to the product line. Designed specifically for critical monitoring...

Tablet PC.(New Products)
September 1, 2004... The Microflex CE8800, from DAP Technologies, is a rugged mobile computing solution. Equipped with an on-screen key-board, a full VGA screen and an XScale processor, the Microflex CE8800 is packed with exceptional functionality to facilitate...

Electronic meter.(New Products)
September 1, 2004... GE Energy's Type I-210 Single-phase Electronic Watt-hour Meter is an electronic watt-hour meter designed for measuring energy consumption in single-phase services. The Type I-210 meter's advanced design is a powerful combination of accuracy,...

Infrared camera.(New Products)
September 1, 2004... The ThermaCAM P65, from FLIR Systems, is a newly released thermal imaging camera with a wide assortment of advanced features that enables the professional thermographer to work with greater efficiency and productivity than ever before. The...

Control system.(New Products)
September 1, 2004... Advanced AMR Technologies' Energy Information and Control System (EICS) is a wireless energy management system that provides cost-effective energy management solutions for AMR and other energy monitoring services. The wireless-to-Internet...

Calendar.(Energy industries)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
September 1, 2004... Distribu TECH 2005: The utility industry's most comprehensive conference on automation, information technology and T & D engineering Jan. 25-27, 2005. San Diego, Calif. // Phone 918.831.9160 // Fax 918.831.9161 // Website www.distributech.com...

Question: "What impact have mobile computing and mobile workforce management technologies had on electric utility companies?".(Parting Shots)
September 1, 2004... Question: "What impact have mobile computing and mobile workforce management technologies had on electric utility companies?" Answer: Improving operational efficiency always has been, and still is today, the key benefit of mobile...