Doble In The News

May Scally leads Canadian operations at Morgan Schaffer, a Doble Engineering company, overseeing production, oil laboratory management, and local R&D initiatives. She holds an MBA from Concordia University and brings 30 years of experience in business development and operations management. She is fluent in French and English and passionate about mentorship, gender equity, and diversity in the workplace.

This article describes an on-line condition monitoring system for a countrywide distribution network together with the reasons for adopting it, its architecture, the measurement approach, and the case studies obtained during the early stages of its adoption.

Tony McGrail, the Solutions Director for Asset Management and Monitoring Technology at Doble Engineering, recently provided POWER with additional information and insight into the importance of remote monitoring and some of the technology available to support the power generation sector.

Utilities and other power generators recognize the importance of proper data management and the use of data analytics. Maximizing the value of data enables utilities to draw operational insights, including identifying current or potential issues at power plants and along the transmission and distribution system.

Take a deep dive into understanding oil specifications such as dielectric strength, viscosity, density, volatility, flash point, chemical stability, and other critical properties.

Obtaining real-time operating data on power plant and substation equipment has never been easier. The sensors, transmitters, and systems needed to monitor important parameters are readily available and highly cost-effective. The ability to identify problems early and make repairs prior to catastrophic failure improves system reliability and saves utilities money.

To get the best from your bushing monitor, it is vital to set expectations up at the outset and ensure the monitor, its maintenance and management are included in the asset management plans of the organization. Then we can expect to get sensible data which can be used to both detect bushing deterioration and subsequently support bushing investigation and diagnostics.

This article by Doble’s Dr. Tony McGrail in Transformers Magazine explores the intricacies of DGA monitor accuracy, emphasizing the challenges in extracting dissolved gases from transformer oil. Despite international standards like IEC 60567 recommending a maximum accuracy of 15% for complete DGA systems, real-world application, as reflected in CIGRE brochures, suggests a potential deviation closer to 50%. The implications of varying accuracies on diagnoses, particularly when employing diagnostic tools like the Duval triangle, are analyzed.

Matthew Carrara, President of Doble Engineering and ESCO Utility Solutions Group (USG), had the opportunity to interview with Authority Magazine for their series called “Moving From Command & Control to Coaching & Collaboration; How Leaders and Managers Can Become Better Coaches”.

As the U.S. prepares to ramp up production of transformers and other grid components, the focus must be on quality and not just quantity.

Matters of NERC PRC and NERC CIP compliance intersect during protection system testing on substation networks. In the modern regulatory environment, the benefits of computer-based relaying are challenged by the costs of cyber security and disrupted or insufficient relay testing practices. The way forward demands interconnected data and the ability to track critical metrics automatically. Organizations can modernize while ensuring compliance readiness by implementing systems that integrate protection and cyber domains into scalable management platforms.

When primary station equipment trips out, it is often the substation maintenance engineers who must review the situation, get the data needed to make an informed decision, and then ‘make the call’…

The design life of a transformer is usually about 20 to 25 years. In the United States, estimates show the average age of a transformer is currently around 42 years, which means a number of even older units are still in service. As with all things, transformers age and degrade over time. Transformer failures can come from a variety of sources including through faults, faulty crimps and brazes, corrosive sulfur, poor design, water intrusion, collateral damage from a bushing or load tap changer (LTC) failure, incorrectly sized leads, and a host of other issues. Overall, however, the demise of a transformer from normal aging is linked directly to the condition of the solid insulation (i.e. paper, cellulose).

We should have expectations when applying condition monitoring to transformers. If we know what to expect then we can identify measurements which are unexpected or anomalous and worthy of deeper investigation.

ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ESE) today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire I.S.A Altanova Group S.R.L. (Altanova), a well-established, leading supplier in the field of advanced condition assessment technologies centered around partial discharge (PD) measurement and analysis, as well as test instruments for electrical apparatus (www.altanova-group.com).