Alabamian ground faults located with autonomous line sensors

In what they claim as an industry first, Alabama Power and Sentient Energy have distinguished ground faults using advanced analytics and intelligent line sensors to increase fault location accuracy.

Sentient Energy announced the solution, which they say is specifically designed to identify ground faults using autonomous line sensors. The feature significantly improves the accuracy of fault location, setting a new standard in outage management procedures, claims the Texas-based company, which develops grid solutions and services.

The new capability, announced as a major upgrade to the tech company’s Ample Analytics Platform, was initially developed with Alabama Power and implemented in a pilot programme.

Alabama Power has deployed over 2,000 intelligent line sensors and integrated sensor data into its Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) to refine distance-to-fault calculations.

By strategically placing three autonomous sensors at a location and utilising the Ample platform to create a virtual three-phase device, Alabama Power can now accurately identify ground faults, exceeding its target accuracy of 85%, says Sentient in a release. This has enabled Alabama Power to improve its response and restoration times.

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“Until now, line sensing technology was unable to accurately identify ground faults, creating potential errors in distance-to-fault calculations that depended on fault data. Our successful pilot programme with Alabama Power is a perfect example of how advanced analytics and sensor data improve the reliability and safety of power distribution,” stated Bob Karschnia, CEO of Sentient Energy.

“We are thrilled with the success of this pilot and look forward to implementing these technologies on a broader scale to continue improving the reliability and safety of our power grids.”

According to Sentient Energy, their Ample Analytics Platform predicts and prevents outages, detects faults, reports fault magnitudes and now distinguishes ground faults.

This enhanced fault detection and location capability is a vital component of the fault location, isolation, and service restoration (FLISR) application, they add, providing a swift solution that reduces System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) and Customer Minutes Interrupted (CMI), improving customer experience during outages.

Alabama Power, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company, manages over 83,000 miles (133,575.55km) of power lines, providing electricity to 1.5 million customers across the state.