Description:
Reference Number:1722
Background
Temporary or portable power solutions are required for military, disaster
relief, industrial, utility distribution networks and remote grid applications.
The deployment of these modular systems requires electrical protection to ensure
safe and reliable operation. The existing commercially available protection
solutions adopted for such systems have a number of inherent weaknesses that
include: a lack of flexibility that prevents easy interconnection, a failure to
optimise the utilisation of the generation capacity and time consuming
configuration. Modification or extension to these networks requires
recalculation of protection settings which must then be applied to the network
hardware using qualified engineers in the field. This can be a costly and
significant time consuming burden in an environment where flexibility and rapid
response are vital.
Technology
The Self-Organising Protection System developed within the Institute for
Energy and the Environment, at the University of Strathclyde resolves these
issues by providing a self-organising solution. The self-configuring nature of
the protection system ensures that despite changes to the generation capacity,
installed load or power network configuration, the protection settings can
automatically update to reflect the new conditions, without the aid of an
electrical engineer. The modular nature of the invention allows additional
connections, either loads or generation, to be added without significant
installation time. The continuous self-configuring nature of the settings
improves performance by adapting to the conditions of the dynamic network. For
example, adding multiple redundant supply paths for important loads to create a
meshed network can be simply achieved as this system will both identify the
change and take the necessary measures to adapt its coverage. Thus this
technology offers a safe, efficient and effective portable power solution.
Key Benefits
- “Plug and play” solution without grading calculations or settings to be
applied
- Inherent multi-level backup protection
- Elimination of engineering tasks normally necessary in field deployments
- Increased network reliability and enhanced protection performance
- Very fast fault clearance
- Suitable for packaging within existing standard distribution units
Markets and Applications
- Utility grid applications
- Military (UK and overseas)
- Disaster relief
- Large scale public events
- Industrial applications
- Marine and aircraft power systems
Licensing and Development
This technology is protected by a patent application filed by the University
of Strathclyde as P15692GB. Contact is welcomed from organisations interested in
developing, licensing or exploiting this technology.
For further information, please contact Research & Knowledge Exchange
Services:
e: rkes@strath.ac.uk t: 0141 548 3707 f: 0141 552
4409