The ultimate grid sensor measuring three phase currents from the outside of a three phase cable and utilizing advanced power system analysis

Abstract

In this paper, a new disruptive combined voltage and current sensor is presented. The current measuring technique allows for three phase current measurements from the outside of a three phase cable. It will be evident from the paper that the existing voltage and current measurement transformers suffer inherent limitations when targeting low cost power system analysis and asset management and new sensing techniques are required. The new current and voltage measuring technique will be presented in this paper along with measuring cases from the field to proof the effectiveness of this new sensor. The sensor can operate as a mini localized SCADA system by performing a wide variety of power system analysis both in long-and short term, but the sensor can also operate as a traditional measuring device and transmit the low level data to the SCADA system. It will be evident from the paper that this localized data processing method in combination with the disruptive current measuring technique can pave the way for the distribution grid to become just as smart as the transmission part of the grid is already. The much better cost/performance ration suddenly makes ‘smart grid’ possible all over the secondary substations.