Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc.

Austin Edward Wade

Edmund O Schweitzer, Iii

Krishnanjan Gubba Ravikumar

David E Whitehead

David J Casebolt

Tony J Lee

Lisa Gayle Nelms

Bruce A Hall

Sean D Robertson

Dennis Haes

Brian R Clark

David Schmidt

Kelsey M Loughlin

Bryan Jennings Foutch

Brandon Michael Nafsinger

Circuit breakers may perform a variety of operations, including isolating a faulty part of the power system that may result in a cascading outage. However, circuit breaker operations may cause wear and tear of the tripping assembly components, which eventually cause the circuit breaker to wear out. Additionally, long periods of non-operations may cause the mechanical parts inside a circuit breaker to move sluggishly or, in some instances, fail to move at all. In an embodiment, a system includes a circuit breaker that trips to control power flow and an intelligent electronic device (IED) including an electronic display. The IED receives measurement data associated with a trip event for the circuit breaker, generates a current profile based on the measurement data, and presents the current profile via the electronic display.

Trip circuit current display

Systems and methods to test an electric power delivery system include a communication subsystem to transmit test signals to one or more merging units, a test subsystem to transmit a test data stream to the one or more merging units via the communication subsystem, and a processor subsystem to receive looped back data from the one or more merging unit in response to the transmitted test data stream and to determine an operating condition based on the looped back data.

Loopback testing of electric power protection systems

Systems and methods may mitigate risk of fire caused by an electric power system. In one embodiment, a system may include an intelligent electronic device (IED). The IED includes a communication subsystem to receive a signal from a sensor related to a condition of the electric conductor. A processing subsystem in communication with the communication subsystem may operate in at least two modes comprising a high security mode and a fire prevention mode. In the fire prevention mode, the IED may interrupt a flow of electric current based on the signal from the at least one sensor associated with the electric conductor. In the high security mode, the system may interrupt a flow of electric current based on the signal from the at least one sensor associated with the electric conductor and based on a second condition relating to the electric conductor.

Fire risk mitigation in electric power systems

The present disclosure pertains to systems and methods for monitoring electrical arc events in an electric power system. In one embodiment, a system may comprise an arc flash detection (AFD) unit to detect electromagnetic radiation generated by an electrical arc event, a primary protection relay to generate measurements of an electric current, and an integrator. In various embodiments, the integrator may comprise a communication port to receive the detection of the electrical arc event and the measurements of the electric current. The integrator may also comprise a processing subsystem to validate the detection of the electrical arc and generate protective actions to interrupt the flow of the current to the electrical arc event.

Electrical arc event detection in an electric power system

Systems and methods for testing a protection relay, such as a primary bus protection relay, may include a testing device for providing current signals imitating current on both sides of a bus to the primary bus protection relay. The signals may be provided using signals corresponding with a signal format from merging units or other monitoring devices. The testing device may be configured to receive communications from the primary bus protection relay for evaluation of the operation of the primary bus protection relay.

Testing device for protective relays in electric power delivery systems

Systems and methods for displaying electric power system metering information in a panel may use digitized signals from primary protection relays. The system may include multiple panel meters. One or more of the panel meters may receive the digitized signals using an electrically non-conductive communication media. In various embodiments, the panel may be electrically isolated from the primary protection relay. The panel may be hot swappable and may be connected to a primary protection relay while the relay is in continuous operation.

Digital input electric power system panel meter

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for creating a data tunnel to communicate test data in a test configuration in an electric power system. In one embodiment, a remote unit may include a monitored equipment interface to receive information representative of a condition in the electric power system from a test set and a first test data port to communicate test data through the data tunnel in the test configuration. The remote unit may use a first communication subsystem to generate and transmit a stream of data packets comprising information from the monitored equipment interface and information from the first test data port to be routed through the data tunnel. A protection system may receive the stream of data packets from the first communication subsystem and separate information from the monitored equipment interface and information from the test data routed through the data tunnel.

Data tunneling for testing equipment in electric power system

The present disclosure pertains to devices, systems, and methods for monitoring an electric power system. In one embodiment, a system may detect a failure in an electric power system. The system may include a communication interface to receive a first indication related to a condition in the electric power system, and a second indication related to the condition. The system may also include a test subsystem to compare the first indication to the second indication and to determine a discrepancy between the first indication and the second indication. A diagnostic subsystem may identify the failure based on the discrepancy between the first indication and the second indication. An alert subsystem may generate an alert based on the failure.

Equipment failure detection in an electric power system

Systems and methods to isolate faults and restore power are described herein. For example, an intelligent electronic device (IED) may receive a blocking signal indicating a fault is detected on a power line. The IED may obtain one or more current measurements of the power line. The IED may determine that a fault is not present on the power line at the IED based on the one or more current measurements. The IED may trip a first current interruption device of the IED The IED may send a close permissive signal to another IED indicating that the other IED is permitted to permitted to close an open current interruption device of the other IED to restore power to one or more loads.

Fault isolation and restoration scheme

Systems and methods may maintain protection of electric power delivery systems in the event of an attack on protection and/or control features of the power system. Primary protective functions may be physically isolated from other functions in primary protection relays. Integrators may facilitate non-primary protection functions and disconnect all communication with primary protection relays in the event of an attack. Primary protection relays maintain protection functions even during the attack or unavailability of the integrators.

Secure electric power delivery system protection during cyber threats

Systems and methods testing a power protection relay include a merging unit to receive signals from an electric power delivery system. The merging unit includes a test signal input to receive test signals from a testing device, a relay output to output at least one of the test signals to a power protection relay, a distribution output to output at least another of the test signals to one or more additional merging units, and a switch subsystem to route the test signal to the relay output or the distribution output.

Multiple merging unit testing system

The present disclosure pertains to systems and methods for generating a waterfall display to display a stream of high-speed data measurements. In one embodiment, a system may comprise a communication subsystem to receive a stream of high-speed data measurements. A waterfall generation subsystem may receive the stream of high-speed data measurements from the communication subsystem and identify a plurality of changes in the stream of high-speed data. A subset of data measurements may be selected that includes changes in the high-speed data. The changes may be highlighted through a plurality of modifications. A representation of the subset of data measurements in which changes are highlighted may be generated and presented at a rate below a perception threshold of a human operator. A waterfall display subsystem may generate a human-perceptible waterfall display to represent the stream of high-speed data measurements and the plurality of modifications.

Waterfall display for high-speed streaming measurements

Systems and methods for facilitating selected communications among primary protection relays using a supervisory system with a configurable input/output (IO) map. Primary protection relays may obtain signals from equipment associated with an electric power delivery system and provide primary protection without need for communication. The primary protection relays may communicate a unique identifier as well as signal values, states, and commands to the supervisory system. The supervisory system may route specifically identified communications among primary protection relays in accordance with a configurable IO map by transmitting selected portions of the communications on a port associated with the receiving primary protection relay. The primary protection relays may perform secondary protection and other operations using the communicated information.

Integration of primary protection relays for electric power delivery systems

Disclosed herein are systems for maintaining protection of electric power delivery systems in the event of a control power failure or other anomaly. A reliable power module conditions electric power from multiple independent sources and provides electrical operational power to electric power delivery system protective loads. The reliable power module includes an energy storage device for providing operational power even upon loss of all control power sources. The energy storage may be sufficient to ride through expected losses such as a time to start up backup generation. The energy storage may be sufficient to power a trip coil. Thus, electric power system protection is maintained even upon loss of control power. A discharge circuit is provided to allow an operator to de-energize an energy storage device.

Growing community of inventors

Moscow, ID, United States of America

Austin Edward Wade