A cost-effective early warning system for improving the reliability of power systems

Abundance of solar, wind, wave and other cleaner energy sources in Australia drives innovation in clean technologies. The new regulatory requirements on renewable energy targets and the increase in carbon emission pricing, increased the need for reliable renewable power systems. Reliable power systems are very crucial for the protection of environment, global warming, and economy of a nation. In the era of carbon pricing, a simple and cost effective way to improve the reliability of power systems is required to achieve the greener societies. This paper presents remote fault detection and identification system for Generation, Transmission and Distribution (GTD) system for both renewable and non-renewable sources to minimize failures and their effects by using an innovative hardware and software system integration. The early warning system developed to improve the reliability of power systems enables the authors to mitigate the possible negative consequences on power systems operation. The equipment developed for this purpose has several advantages due to its low cost, low power consumption, and easy installation and maintenance. In this paper, the authors share their success stories and lessons learned in the implementation of their system to improve the reliability of power systems in electrical, telecommunication and transport industries. A special case of installation, testing and commissioning of SMS Alert System to monitor the change in status of circuit breaker and auto-reclosure status generated within EHV switchyard equipments in an electrical sub-station will be discussed from reliability point of view. A comparative study of the developed system will also be discussed between different geographically separated locations among renewable and non-renewable power systems.