The smart termination: An innovative component to enable Smart Grids development

Up to now MV grid intelligence was concentrated in a few nodes, but, to enable Smart Grid's development, the presence of broadly distributed intelligence is a must; accordingly the installation of distributed measurement at several points of the MV grid is critical. In this context Enel Distribuzione and 3M have worked together on a very innovative component to retrofit existing installations: a sensored termination (called “Smart Termination” in Enel Distribuzione's specification document) for air connection switchboards, with pre-calibrated, highly accurate, passive current and voltage sensors embedded. These components have been developed to be connected to the RGDM, the Enel Distribuzione smart device installed in secondary substations for protection, automation and MV Distributed Generation management. In the first part of the paper the Enel requirements for Smart Grid devices (general functional and specific sensors requirements) are described, then the 3M product developed to meet these requirements is presented, and lastly the first sensored termination test and pilot installation results are presented.