The Problem
An energy company experienced a bushing failure on a Generator Step Up transformer (GSU) that caused a catastrophic failure of the transformer and significant lost revenue. They recognized that early warnings of trouble could protect these expensive critical assets. They needed a means to monitor their entire fleet of wind and solar generation assets across the United States and Canada. In addition, they wished to automate monitoring of station service batteries subject to NERC PRC compliance and reporting. Since the system is widely dispersed and located in remote locations, minimizing site visits was critical to operating efficiency and containing maintenance costs.
They were looking for a supplier that offered
- Turnkey installation
- Monitor upgrades
- New monitor installations
- Selection and integration of a battery monitor
- Visualization software
- 24/7 monitoring and reporting of equipment condition
The Solution
Dynamic Ratings LIFESTREAM™ Support Services Team met all the requirements requested by the energy company. Existing Dynamic Ratings E3 monitors were originally provided as part of the transformer OEM installations. These units were enhanced to include the bushing monitoring functionality. For sites with no monitors previously deployed, C50 monitors with bushing monitoring were installed.
Monitoring was installed on two system battery banks (UPS batteries) that required continuous monitoring and alarming.
Dynamic Ratings’ data visualization software, DynamicMetrix®, provides an asset-specific health index and is used to integrate the monitored information. Due to remote locations, cellular modems are used to transmit data back to the 24/7 condition monitoring system. The energy company now has web access to view real-time information and to download historical data.