'Time warp' tech speeds up repair of faulty power lines, cuts outage time
PR Newswire
Mulgrave, Vic., Apr. 6, 2020 /Medianet/ --
- New ‘time reversal’ technology developed by Monash University researchers can locate faults in power networks in tens of seconds, and cut the duration of power outages.
- A new patent for this technology has been filed at Monash University, and expressions of interest from Australian industry to upscale for further testing have been received.
- This technology, which could go
global, helps existing technology to prevent fires.
Radical new
‘time reversal’ technology developed by Monash University and Swiss researchers
can reduce the period taken to locate powerline faults and help ease community impact
in areas at risk of bushfires.
An
international research team involving Dr Reza Razzaghi from Monash University’s
Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering has successfully
tested their fault location technology in Switzerland, with further trials to
continue on Australian power lines.
A patent for the
latest innovation in this technology has been filed by Monash University, and
Australian industry has expressed interest in upscaling it for further tests on
rural powerline networks.
In contrast
to current methods, this technology requires only a single measurement point
installed at a substation which can identify a precise fault in the power line,
to within 10 metres, in a few seconds to minutes.
Victoria currently
adopts Rapid Earth Fault Current Limiters (REFCLs) across its high-risk rural power
networks, which limits the energy supply when a fault occurs to mitigate any
bushfire risks.
However, REFCLs
cannot precisely determine where a fault is located, meaning restoration crews can
spend hours patrolling hundreds of kilometres of power lines in order to find the
problem before they can fix it.
Thousands of
people can be without power for several hours in extreme heat wave conditions as
a result of this time lag. Local communities welcome the reduction in
fire-risk, but can suffer heat stress casualties due to the long power outages
that are sometimes required to prevent fires.
“This
innovation aims to ease the community impact of current technology that helps
to prevent fires. The problem we have is when a network fault is detected, the
REFCL activates to prevent the fire but it can’t find the fault,” Dr Tony
Marxsen, Research Associate in Monash University’s Department of Electrical and
Computer Systems Engineering, said.
“So what ends
up happening is that a large number of people are without power for upwards of
five hours on a 45 degree day.
“This
technology offers the hope that faults can be pinpointed quickly, reliably and
safely, to, above all, reduce the impact on customers in very high stress
conditions.”
The ‘time
reversal’ technology comprises three steps: firstly, the fault signals are
measured; the fault locations are then defined and the time-reversed signals
are injected to a computer model of the network; and, finally, the fault current
at a guessed location is evaluated to identify the most probable location of
the fault.
“Imagine a
swimming pool with sensors around its perimeter. If a stone was dropped into
the water, the ripples would hit the sensors, and these sensors would record
the waves generated by this stone drop. The ‘time reversal’ technology can find
the location of the dropped stone by (in a computer model of the pool)
reversing the direction of the waves measured by the sensors,” Dr Razzaghi
said.
The
technology will allow distribution network operators to locate faults in power
lines quickly and allow the fault to be found and repaired faster.
Faults in
electrical distribution networks are one of the primary sources of major
bushfires in Australia. On Black Saturday, five of Victoria’s 11 major
bushfires were started by power line faults. Media reports blamed a power
network fault for a 2019 fire in South Australia that burned more than 20,000
hectares, destroying many houses and local businesses.
“Rather than bypassing
REFCLs and re-energising faulty networks and risking a fire, this technology
can help to pinpoint the fault location after the operation of REFCLs,” Dr
Razzaghi said.
“This radical new technology has the potential
to save lives and ensure Australia is best prepared to prevent and tackle any
catastrophic incidents that might arise as our country continues to get warmer
and drier,” Dr Marxsen said.
Further
research in currently being undertaken to adapt this technology to Australian
power networks.
The study,
titled ‘Time reversal applied to fault location in
power networks: Pilot test results and analyses’ was a collaboration between Dr Reza Razzaghi (Monash University), and
Mr Zhaoyang Wang, Dr Mario Paolone and Dr Farhad Rachidi (Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology Lausanne).
Other partners
on this project include the Monash Energy Institute, Monash GRID Innovation Hub,
AusNet Services and IND Technology.
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