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ISSUE 2 VOLUME 17, 2005ISSUE 2 VOLUME 17, 2005

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The Spring Transformer Report

Also:

The Spring Transformer Report

Also:Testing and MeasurementMeteringElectrical Maintenance

Boston, MAApril 10-15, 2005

Special Preview on page 16

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Volu

me

16,

Issue

7, 2

004

in this issue

3

6 Judging the efficiency of lown noise power transformers17 Electrical workers unveil Puerto Rico Training Center

12 Reliability and the Human Factor

14 Hydro-Quebec crew returns home from Haiti18 Areva T&D Inc. wins de-icing contract in Quebec24 Doble’s Strength lay in its international expertise26 New Kalar MTS to meet peak electricity needs in Niagara

16 Industry Leaders look to Doble, Metering America Conferences

27 Rural Mississippi Utility goes to automatic meter reading

20 Sealing the leak to reduce greenhouse gas emissions28 Analyzing Electric Utility NOx emission allowance trading strategies36 Classification of Electric Shock Hazards Needs Re-examination40 On-site condition assessment of medium voltage cable

21 Selecting a surge generator for maximum efficiency32 NERC 1300 made easier

53, 54

54

Volu

me

17,

Issue

2, 2

005

in this issueSPRING TRANSFORMER REPORT

METERING

TESTING & MEASUREMENT

SHOCK THERAPY

SPECIAL PREVIEW

ELECTRICAL MAINTENANCE

ADVERTISERS INDEX

INDUSTRY NEWS

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PRODUCTS AND SERVICES SHOWCASE

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:13 PM

Electricity Today Issue 2, 20054

editorial board

BRUCE CAMPBELL

BOB FESMIRE CHARLIE MACALUSO

SCOTT ROUSE

BRUCE CAMPBELL, LL.B., Independent Electricity Market Operator (IMO)Mr. Campbell is responsible for business development, regulatory

affairs, corporate relations and communications, and legal affairs at theIMO. He has extensive background within the industry and, in particular,acted as legal counsel in electricity planning, facility approval and rateproceedings throughout his career in private practice.

JOHN McDONALD, IEEE President-ElectMr. McDonald, P.E., is Senior Principal Consultant and Director of

Automation, Reliability and Asset Management for KEMA, Inc. He isPresident-Elect of the IEEE Power Engineering Society (PES), Immediate PastChair of the IEEE PES Substations Committee, and an IEEE Fellow.

BOB FESMIRE, ABBBob Fesmire is a communications manager in ABB's Power

Technologies division. He writes regularly on a range of power industrytopics including T&D, IT systems, and policy issues. He is based in SantaClara, California.

CHARLIE MACALUSO, Electricity Distributor's AssociationMr. Macaluso has more than 20 years experience in the electricity

industry. As the CEO of the EDA, Mr. Macaluso spearheaded the reform ofthe EDA to meet the emerging competitive electricity marketplace, andpositioned the EDA as the voice of Ontario's local electricity distributors,the publicly and privately owned companies that safely and reliably deliv-er electricity to over four million Ontario homes, businesses, and publicinstitutions.

SCOTT ROUSE, CIPEC ChairmanScott Rouse is a strong advocate for proactive energy solutions. He

has achieved North American recognition for developing an energy effi-ciency program that won Canadian and US EPA Climate ProtectionAwards through practical and proven solutions. As a published author,Scott has been called to be a keynote speaker across the continent fornumerous organizations including the ACEEE, IEEE, EPRI, and CombustionCanada. Scott currently serves as Chair of the Canadian Industry Programfor Energy Conservation (CIPEC) - Energy Manager Network and is a pro-fessional engineer, holds an M.B.A. and is also a Certified EnergyManager.

OUR EDITORIAL BOARD NEEDS YOU:We are currently looking for a sixth member to complete our editori-

al board. If you are interested, please contact Don Horne at 905 6861040, or email [email protected]

JOHN McDONALD

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:13 PM

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The emitted noise of transformersincreases with the power rating andloading and can easily lead to a loss ofquality of life for neighboring resi-dents. Because of that, the specifiednoise levels for transformers haveobviously decreased within the lastseveral years. By using classical trans-former design, it is often impossible tofulfill the requested noise levels, sospecial measures have to be applied fora suitable noise reduction. Because ofthe already achieved reduction of theno-load noise, the lowering of loadnoise becomes necessary and increas-ingly important.

1. Origin, transmission andradiation of transformer noise

The physical mechanism of trans-former noise generation is well knownin principal today . Two componentsform the total transformer noise. Thefirst component is the magnetically-based noise (core noise, winding noise)and the second component is the noiseof the cooling equipment when coolingfans are used. This paper deals onlywith magnetically-based noise becausethe cooling equipment can be seen asan external transformer element and itsnoise therefore understood and handledseparately.

1.1 Origin of the noiseThe source of magnetic noise is the

active part of the transformer (Fig. 1).The active part (a.k.a. core-and-coilassembly) consists mainly of the core,windings and clamping parts. Noiseformation is caused by mechanicaloscillations of the mentioned elementsof the active part in response to mag-netic flux or fields. Because of the dif-ferent associated mechanisms, themagnetic noise is advantageously sepa-rated into no-load noise and load noise.Both noise components can be mea-sured separately with good accuracyand afterwards summarized to the totaltransformer noise.

a) no-load noiseAs soon as voltage is applied to a

transformer winding and the trans-former is operated in no-load condi-tion, there will be a magnetic alternat-ing flux in the core. This flux causes aperiodic shape variation (expansionand contraction) of the core lamina-

tions due to magnetostriction, resultingin oscillations of the whole transformercore at double the power frequency .Because of the nonlinear characteristicof magnetostriction there are also high-er harmonic oscillations.

b) load noiseAs soon as the transformer trans-

fers real or reactive power , the associ-ated magnetic stray fields due to thecurrent flow generate electromagneticforces on dif ferent parts of the trans-former which excite these parts tomechanical oscillations. The mainsource for the load noise is normallythe mechanical spring-mass systemconsisting of the windings and theirclamping parts. The mechanical excita-tion for this system is provided by axialand radial winding forces caused by thewinding currents and the stray field(Fig. 2). The characteristic frequencyfor the load noise is double the powerfrequency because of the almost sinu-

SPRING TRANSFORMER REPORT

JUDGING THE EFFICIENCY OF LOW NOISEPOWER TRANSFORMERS

By Christoph Ploetner, Peter Heinzig, Harold Moore and Donald Chu, Siemens Power T&D Inc.

clamping frame

magnetic tank wall shunts

windings

core

magnetic stray field lines

Fig. 1: Active part of a 318 MVA trans-former

Fig. 2: Stray field in the upper area of a transformer

Continued on Page 8

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ET2_05 4/1/05 3:13 PM

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soidal current waveshape. Harmonicsof minor magnitude occur due to somenon-linear elastic modules of parts ofthe mechanical spring-mass system.

Further noise sources are oscilla-tions of the tank walls and of the mag-netic shunts mounted on the tank walls.Maxwell forces due to the radial strayfield component, especially in the areaof the winding ends, are the cause ofthat oscillation.

1.2 Noise transmission and radia-tion

Transmission of the vibration ofthe active part to the tank is primarilythrough the insulating liquid (oil) and,to a smaller extent, through the physi-cal attachments of the active part to thetank base and cover . The vibrationenergy is transferred through the insu-lating liquid nearly non-damped and itexcites the tank walls to oscillate. Lackof any appreciable damping is due tothe incompressible characteristic ofliquids and the relatively small dis-tances between the active part and thetank walls.

Fig. 3 shows a measured 100 Hzoscillation mode of a single tank wallof a 340 MV A single-phase generatorstep-up transformer.

2. Typical values of the emittedsound power of transformers

By improvements of materials (forexample the introduction of high per-meability electrical steel - HiB), byusing optimized design parameters,and by the permanent improvement ofthe transformer design (for example theintroduction of step-lap core technolo-gy), over the past several decades itbecame possible to reduce transformerno-load noise on request as much as 12dB without making the transformeruneconomical by a high increase ofmaterial cost or a lar ger transformerphysical size.

Until the introduction of high per-meability electrical steel and step-lapcore technology, load noise of trans-formers was generally not of concern;it was considered as negligible in com-parison to no-load noise. This haschanged with the introduction of thementioned material and technology .For transformers operating with induc-tion values lower than 1.6 T (Tesla) to1.5 T, the load noise is becoming moreimportant and may easily become thedominant transformer noise.

Fig. 4 shows the average emittedsound power (not sound pressure) of 50Hz transformers under no-load condi-tion (yellow curves) and during the

load test over the rated power (magen-ta curve). These curves are only typicalbecause manufacturer-specific designmeasures are not introduced here.Therefore, for specific individual trans-formers a deviation from the curves ofup to ± 5dB is possible. The noise lev-els for 60 Hz transformers would beincreased by about 3 dB over the val-ues shown.

For the calculation of transformerno-load noise, manufacturers have the-

oretically derived and statisticallyadopted design rules. The basis for thecalculation of A-weighted load soundpower (LWA) was empirically investi-gated and introduced by Reiplinger [1]and is now also discussed in interna-tional (IEC) standards [2], although theIEC formula gives typically too lownoise levels. More realistic averagelevels can be simply calculated withequation (1).


LOW NOISE

Continued from Page 6

Continued on Page 10Fig. 3: 100 Hz oscillation mode of a trans-former tank wall

Fig. 4: Emitted A-weighted sound power of modern 50 Hz transformers

Equation 1

LWA = 42 + 18 Log10[Sr / S0]

Sr – rated power of the transformer S0 – power base (1 MVA)

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:13 PM

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:13 PM

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Equation (1) is graphically shownalso in Fig. 4.

A transformer is normally ener-gized at a voltage at or near its ratedvalue, but the MVA loading is typicallywell below the nameplate rating, withfull load occurring only rarely, possiblyonly during failure contingency situa-tions. This has the advantage that theload noise also only rarely reaches itsfull level, so the transformer noiselevel is determined by the no-loadnoise most of the operating time. Thisalso explains why , up to now , loadnoise considerations have not had theimportance of no-load noise considera-tions. Equation (2) shows the behaviorof the load sound power related to theactual transformer load.

The fast decline of the noise levelcan be seen from equation (2) whenloading the transformer with a lowerthan rated power (current) and is exem-plarily shown in Fig. 4 also for a trans-former with a rated power of 400MVA.

The total (no-load and load) emit-ted sound power level of a transformercan be calculated by a logarithmicaddition of the sound power levelsobtained during the no-load test and theload test with rated power. This is validonly by general agreement because themagnetic flux and field distributioninside the transformer is dif ferent dur-ing the real transformer operation withrated voltage and current in compari-

son with those given during no-loadand load test, although this influence isnormally small.

3. Possibilities for the reduction oftransformer noise

Progress to date regarding no-loadnoise of modern state-of-the-art trans-formers is considerable. However, it isobvious that noise restrictions arebecoming more severe and some arenow also taking the load noise intoaccount. Without special measuresthose noise levels cannot be fulfilled.

Over the years, a lot of dif ferentnoise reduction measures have beenproposed with varying success. In gen-eral, there are two groups of noisereduction measures: passive and active.

The most ef fective passive noisereduction measure is still the totalenclosure of a transformer by a sepa-rate so-called sound house, with whichit is possible to achieve 20-25 dB noiselevel reductions. The total cost for asound house can easily be 10-20% of

the transformer cost and alsothe additional space needed isconsiderable.

Proposals for active noisereduction have been usedonly very rarely and wouldnot be expected to be suc-cessful in the future. Activeanti-noise methods include,for example, anti-sound gen-erating devices for noise can-cellation and electromechani-cal or piezo actors attached at

certain points on the tank walls toreduce the tank wall vibration. Bothmethods need a highly sophisticatedmicroprocessor controlled algorithm.

To fulfill a certain noise levelbesides making the proper choice ofsome design parameters, it is also pos-sible to apply dif ferent passive noisereduction measures which can be real-ized with an acceptable ef fort and at areasonable cost and noise reductionlevels of 8-10 dB can be achieved.

Because of the dif ferent origins(physical mechanisms) for no-load andload noise, the noise reduction mea-sures have to be considered separately.Only measures related to the tank applyfor both noise components.

The proper choice of the coreinduction level (flux density) and thegrade of core steel is most importantfor the no-load noise, and the kind ofcore stacking (e.g. step-lap construc-tion) and the kind and magnitude ofcore pressing will also strongly influ-ence the no-load noise. In addition onemust consider the mechanical naturalfrequencies of the core, which must notequal the exciting frequency.

According to equation (1) the loadnoise at rated load is primarily a func-tion of the transformer rated power .Empirical investigations have furthershown that different winding types andtheir arrangement on the core influencethe load noise. Also the winding tight-ness plays an important role for theload noise. This tightness will be pro-vided by having proper conductor ten-sion during manufacturing of the wind-ings and using pressing elements forthe winding production, by applying asuitable drying treatment process forwindings and active part, and by apply-ing an adequate method of securingand pressing the windings within theactive part. Furthermore, mechanicalwinding natural frequencies in thevicinity of twice the power frequencyshould be avoided since, in this case,the resonance excitation of the windingwould cause a noise increase of up to 5dB.

The influence of Maxwell forceson the tank walls and the tank wallshunts caused by the magnetic strayfield are not significant as long as theshunts have a proper design and sizeand are properly attached to the tankwalls.

To minimize vibration transmis-sion from the active part to the tank, itis important to provide the placementand attachment of the active part with-in the tank such that it is almost totallyisolated from oscillation vibration.

Another important noise reductionmeasure is the enclosure of the tankwalls with special damping panels. Theconstruction, the materials used, andthe size of the covered tank surfacedetermine the damping ef fectiveness.A normal noise level reduction value is4 dB but reductions of up to 8 dB are


LOW NOISE


Continued on Page 15

Equation 2

∆LW = 20 Log10[I / Ir]≤ = 20 Log10[S / Sr]

I – actual currentIr – rated current

S – actual power

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:13 PM

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With the energy bill mov-ing to the front burnerin the U.S. Congress,

attention in the industry is beingfocused once again on the issue ofreliability. That reminded me ofsomething I learned almost twentyyears ago. Let me explain.

When I was in college, my engi-neer roommate took a course calledHuman Factors. Today it’s morecommonly known as ergonomics, butwhen I think about what really makesthe grid reliable, I keep coming backto that phrase: human factors.

With the rapid advance of tech-nology, it’s easy to forget how criticalpeople are in keeping the lights on.Technologies such as wide area mon-itoring systems (W AMS) offer realbenefits and are moving the gridtoward becoming a more autonomousentity. But though these systems arealready commercially available, itwill likely be several years beforetheir full potential is realized. Assophisticated as our monitoring andcontrol systems have become, humanjudgment is still the most importantfactor in preventing blackouts.

Over the past several years, anumber of trends have made itincreasingly difficult for the powerindustry to preserve reliability. Froman organizational standpoint, restruc-turing has created boundariesbetween operations that were former-ly part of a single vertically integrat-ed utility. Now, generation, transmis-sion and distribution functions arecontrolled in many regions by groupsthat are required by law to be sepa-rate.

On the regulatory front, one needonly look at a map showing the vari-ous stages of restructuring acrossNorth America to see that the endstate of this transition is still very

much unclear. As a result, the ques-tion of who is ultimately responsiblefor reliability remains lar gely unan-swered.

Then, there is the issue of demo-graphics. As has been widely report-ed, the “knowledge base” of the elec-tric utility is aging, and there are notenough young engineers coming upin the ranks to take the place of thosewho are retiring. Add to that the factthat utility jobs — long viewed assome of the most stable anywhere —are no longer a guarantee of employ-ment, and you have an increasinglycomplex power system being man-aged by less experienced people, whocome and go from their jobs at amuch higher rate than in the past. Asa result, the exchange of knowledgeis being thwarted and the institution-al memory of the utility is in dangerof being compromised.

In addition to the “human fac-tors” within the industry , there isanother kind playing havoc with reli-ability: politics. The August 2003blackout is a distant memory for mostordinary people, who understandablyassume that suf ficient correctiveaction has been taken to prevent sucha large outage from happening in thefuture. Those of us in the industryknow better. The fact is that eighteenmonths after the lar gest outage indecades, we still do not have manda-tory reliability standards in place, andmuch needed investment is still notflowing into the transmission infra-structure. This is due in large part tothe failure of our elected of ficials topass legislation that would put thenecessary framework in place toallow more widespread improve-ments.

It is a sad irony that the near uni-versal agreement over the need formandatory reliability standards (and

an accompanying enforcementregime) is, in fact, the very thing thatkeeps them from becoming a reality .Grid reliability is political bait, yousee. Embedded in the ener gy bill,reliability rules act as a “sweetener”to encourage negotiations over morecontentious issues such as drilling inANWR or regional price increasesbrought on by open power markets.Take the reliability title out of the billand you get a legislative pill that’ sharder to swallow , but consideringwhat is at stake that may be the mostexpedient path to establishing relia-bility standards.

Uncertainty is investor kryp-tonite, and without a clearer under-standing of who is responsible forwhat with regard to grid reliability ,the resources needed to strengthenour electric power infrastructure willremain elusive. Mandatory standardswon’t solve the problem on theirown, but they are a necessary andfundamental first step.

There is little we can do in theshort term to mitigate the aging of theutility workforce and the other insti-tutional reactions to a changingindustry landscape. There is, howev-er, much that can and should be doneto make reliability safe for invest-ment, and it starts with clear stan-dards and meaningful enforcement.If for the current session of Congressthat means relegating issues such asproduction tax credits to some com-mittee backwater in order to pass thereliability measures separately, so beit. You can’t build a better wind tur-bine if your assembly line isn’ t mov-ing.

The opinions expressed here are theauthor’s own and do not necessaril yrepresent those of ABB.

SHOCK THERAPY

RELIABILITY AND THE HUMAN FACTOR

By Bob Fesmire, Communications manager at ABB

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:23 PM

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:23 PM

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The 14-member Hydro-Quebecline crew and support group thatleft last November to re-establishessential services in Haiti returnedhome recently.

The work - mostly carried outin the city of Gonaives and alongthe national highway betweenSaint-Marc and Gonaives - wasconducted in concert withElectricité d’Haiti (EDH). Thesome 90 sites that were worked on,including the villages of Johanisseand Bois Blanc and the city ofEstère, saw the Hydro-Quebec teaminstalling 400 poles, 10 kilometresof conductors and 85 transformers.

The Hydro-Quebec team rou-tinely put in 16 hour days, six daysa week, with Canadian and Haitianlineworkers benefiting from theshared knowledge on each projecton which they worked.

The fruits of their labour wereshown in the restored service towater pumps crucial for field irriga-tion, and restored power to LaProvidence and Raboteau hospitals,a centre housing Doctors withoutBorders, a CARE distribution cen-tre, and convents and schools runby Canadian and Italian nuns.

In addition, the installation ofstreet lamps at strategic pointsallowed lighting to be restored inseveral districts of Gonaives.

With the help of a $500,000contribution from the CanadianInternational Development Agency,Hydro-Quebec was able to prolongthe mission in Haiti and purchasemore poles and transformers. Thetotal budget for the project - ofwhich Hydro-Quebec was the onlycompany to come to the aid of theEDH - was $4 million.

INDUSTRY NEWS

HYDRO-QUEBEC LINE CREW RETURNS HOMEFROM HAITI

By Don Horne

Standing (back): Jean Alain, Chief Lineman; Pierre Bernèche, Technician; Claude Bolduc,Chief Lineman; Robert Beaupré, Chief Lineman and Dominique Thériault, Chief Lineman;

Jean-Paul Poissant, Foreman, Robert Guindon, Chief Lineman, André Lauriot, Chief Lineman;Claude Jacob, ChiefLineman; Hortense

Lessard, Clerk.Sitting (front): Réjean

Gosselin, ChiefLineman; RaynaldBonneau, ChiefLineman; Alain

Brodeur, Logistician,Philippe Nault, ChiefLineman and Gilbert

Paquette, Missionleader.

Missing from the pic-ture are Lyne

Brousseau, clerk andCarl Guimond, Chiefaerial maintenance.

At left, the crew workson stringing new lines.

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:23 PM

tions, but damping panels on the tank walls were permitted.The restrictive space requirements did not allow any sig-nificant reduction of the core induction, resulting in a lar g-er active part. For the same reason, thick damping panelswere also not applicable.

The following average sound power levels for the fourtransformers were obtained by careful matched applicationof the above described noise reduction measures:

possible.

4. Example: 65 MVA low noise transformers producedfor Consolidated Edison

Consolidated Edison Company serves New York City,with a power peak load of 12,200 MW , and operates about350 power transformers in its system. These transformersare almost standardized regarding power, voltage and volt-age control and are classified in 10 types. The smallest sub-station power transformer type is the 65 MV A transformerwith a voltage ratio of 132 kV± 5% (DETC) to 13.8kV±12% (OLTC) with the high voltage winding delta con-nected and the low voltage winding wye connected. Manyof these 65 MVA transformers are located in substations inclose proximity to residential and business buildings withinNew York City.

Until recently, the noise level requirement for thesetransformers was specified as 60 dB(A) to 66 dB(A) soundpressure level in relation to ANSI/IEEE standards, i.e. onlyfor no-load operation so the sound power levels would haveto be 82 dB(A) or 88 dB(A) depending upon the trans-former location. The new noise requirement now specifiesa 78 dB(A) sound power level and in addition there arespecified maximum sound levels for eight octave bands upto 8 kHz to limit tonal frequencies.

In a major change from the previous specification, forall new transformers the emitted sound level now must befulfilled not only for no-load condition at nominal voltagebut also for full load operation with maximum line voltagein a tap position which implies additionally an over -excita-tion. The reason for these new requirements is a revision ofthe New York City noise regulations and the observation onthe already installed transformers that the emitted noiseunder load conditions increased significantly as comparedto noise under no-load conditions. On-site sound measure-ments on some installed transformers of different manufac-turers have shown sound power levels under full load con-dition between 82 and 88 dB(A).

A special characteristic of these particular transformersis voltage control by load tap changer on the low voltageside which, because of the lar ge current and specificrequirements for the impedance voltage over the tap range,results in the application of a booster (series) transformer .Therefore two active parts, main and series, are placed inthe transformer tank.

In addition, other special characteristics such as thehigh impedance voltage of 25% at rated power and a sepa-rate compartment for the load tap changer make this a spe-cial transformer. Consequently, the normal rules for noisedetermination can be used only in a limited manner .

An external sound house application for noise reduc-tion was not feasible because of space and other restric-

15Electricity Today Issue 2, 2005

LOW NOISE

www.pioneertransformers .com

SALES: 905 625 0868



Fig. 5: 65 MVA low-noise transformer after successful final test inthe factory

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:23 PM


April spellsnot only thearrival of springshowers, but theannual MeteringA m e r i c aConference andthe InternationalConference ofDoble Clientsfrom April 10-15.

The 6th Annual Metering AmericaConference in Las Vegas will be at thefocal point of next-generation tech-nologies for ener gy management andrevenue expansion.

Attended by leading internationaland national associations, such asNETA, PLMA, PLCA, the CanadianElectricity Association and NASEO,Electricity Today is proud to be a par-ticipant of this conference and exhibi-tion.

The unique international perspec-tive comes from James Lau, Principalof GSL Consulting in China, as heexamines opportunities in the Chinesemetering market. The Automatic MeterManagement project in Italy will bediscussed by Matteo Codazzi, SalesExecutive of Enel Distribuzione andMichele Marzola, AMM BusinessLeader for IBM, Italy.

Just a few of the exhibitors of fer-ing vendor briefings include Peace,Sungard, Itron, Coronis Systems,Analog Devices, and CarinaTechnology Inc. Welcoming everyoneon Day One will be Craig Goodman,President of NEMA, DC for thekeynote address from Dick Burdette,Energy Advisor to Governor Guinn andDirector of the Nevada State Of fice ofEnergy.

As Metering America is all aboutlooking ahead, the remainder of themorning will include a live discussionof the good, the bad and the ugly of

what is going on in the industry .Although the discussions have provenhard-hitting and critical in years past,the discussions have always been basedon a desire to improve - constructivedebate so that everyone can becomebetter.

In the same vein, Eric Cody ,President of Cody Ener gy Group, willlead a discussion on Future shock:What market upheaval will mean formetering, billing and CRM, followedby a round-table discussion on the topthree metering and customer serviceneeds of utility professionals.

During the late morning and earlyafternoon, smart metering comes to theforefront with the Senior StrategicManager of the SPi Group BrentWilliams looking at how to implementstandards to overcome obstacles andissues of a smart meter initiative, fol-lowed by a close look at Ontario’ smove to smart metering with the focuson leveraging the consumer benefitsfrom the competitive provision of ener-gy services.

The afternoon discussion groupsturn to networking and how the grid ofthe future will look, from wirelessmesh and peer-to-peer networks to thevalue of IDRs to data aggregators forcompetitive power procurement.

The problems of billing, as itrelates to managing cash flow , theadvantages of prepayment and the prosand cons of flat and complex billing,

will be chaired by Warren B. Causey ofGeorgia.

Examining asset optimization willbe Jim Nolan, Residential LoadControl Manager of Nevada Power . Awide range of topics from route opti-mization to manage the transition toAMR, the future of mobile computingfor field workforces and an applicationof SCADA in feeder automation sys-tems for medium voltage distributionnetworks in Istanbul, Turkey will be onthe agenda.

Day 2 continues in the same vein,with a multi-level look at metering,from demand response to revenueassurance. A special forum (by invita-tion only) will be directed by JanPeeters, President of Olameter Ontario,on the evolution of chief informationofficers within the utility industry. Thefour major groupings of today’ s mod-ern CIO:

- Traditional CIO: Strategic rolefocusing on shaping top-level businessneeds and expectations across theenterprise and would not be responsi-ble for delivering on implementation.

- Chief Technology Officer/ChiefInfrastructure Officer: Responsible forensuring that the technology-based ser-vices are delivered cost-effectively andresponsibilities include exploitingsourcing opportunities.

- Technology Opportunist: Heavily

SPECIAL PREVIEW

INDUSTRY LEADERS LOOK TO DOBLE,METERING AMERICA CONFERENCES

By Don Horne

Contniued on Page 19

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ET2_05 4/1/05 3:23 PM

includes digital electronics, structured cabling system,basic math, transformers, DC theory , motors and more.Adhering to strict performance standards, each IBEW jour-neyman wireman is required to spend 1,000 hours in theclassroom and 8,000 hours on the job. By graduation,IBEW members are qualified to perform everything fromdelicate fiber-optic installations to lar ge construction pro-jects.

The IBEW is an international labor or ganization thathas trained the most qualified electricians in the trade formore than 110 years. With approximately 750,000 mem-bers in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Guam andthe Republic of Panama, the IBEW has members in con-struction, utilities, manufacturing, telecommunications,broadcasting, railroads and government.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workersunveiled the first multi-employer electrical apprenticeshiptraining in Puerto Rico in March, the crucial first step inachieving a uniform skill level for the island’s constructionelectricians.

The educational center offers Puerto Rico’s electriciansthe opportunity to upgrade their abilities to meet the higheststandards in electrical construction.

“This is an historic moment in the IBEW ,” said IBEWInternational President Edwin D. Hill. “For the first time inPuerto Rico, contractors, builders and all users of construc-tion will have a benchmark by which to judge the abilitiesof electricians. Soon, everyone in the Puerto Rican businesscommunity will know that IBEW means the most experi-enced, best qualified electricians in construction.”

The training center is a co-operative ef fort of theIBEW, the National Electrical Contractors Association(NECA), a group of 70,000 electrical contractors, and theNational Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee(NJATC), a model educational partnership of IBEW andNECA that spends $100 million annually to develop thework force of the future.

The three-story, 8,700-square-foot facility in Doradowill also serve as the administrative of fices of newly char-tered IBEW Local 950. Featuring conduit-bending andtransformer labs, theory classrooms and eight jobsite-com-parable evaluation stations, the educational center will bestaffed by NJATC-certified instructors. Former Colegio DePeritos Electricistas (Puerto Rico electrical trade associa-tion) President Juan Pagán is the education director . Thecenter opened on March 1.

A key component of the instruction at the educationalfacility will be English as a Second Language classes. Alltraining material is in English, and for the sake of safety anduniformity, IBEW members must have basic proficiency inEnglish. Most instructors will be bilingual.

One of the first tasks of Local 950’ s charter memberswill be to adopt the IBEW Fifth District’s Code ofExcellence, a written commitment to demonstrate to cus-tomers that IBEW members perform the highest quality ofwork, utilize their skills and abilities to the maximum, andexercise safe and productive work practices.

To maintain the uniformly qualified work force, poten-tial IBEW members must take evaluations that test the fullscope of skills required to install electrical components andsystems. Before workers can become journeyman electri-cians, they must under go a five-year, full-time apprentice-ship program that covers a full range of instruction that



ELECTRICAL WORKERS UNVEIL PUERTO RICOTRAINING CENTER

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:23 PM


AREVA’s Transmission and Distribution (T&D) divisionhas been awarded a 25-million euro contract in Canada to buildthe world’s first HVDC-based de-icing and power quality sys-tem for Hydro-Québec.

During the ice storms that struck Quebec in the winter of1998, hundreds of kilometers of high-voltage transmission linesand thousands of transmission towers collapsed due to an accu-mulation of ice, leaving millions of people without electricity .To optimize the security of its power grid, Hydro-Québec hascontracted AREVA T&D to build and install HVDCice™, atransmission line de-icing system based on high-voltage directcurrent (HVDC) technology.

Kurt Hakansson, Executive Vice-President for AREVA’sSystems Business Unit, said: “AREV A T&D’s system willensure maximum electrical ef ficiency and guarantee a securesupply of electricity, in line with Hydro-Québec’ s sustainabledevelopment principles. This is the second important HVDC-

based project awarded to AREVA T&D in the last 18 months,which demonstrates our commitment to breaking into this mar-ket. This latest success is due to our ability to combine existingtechnologies in an innovative way”.

AREVA’s HVDCice™ will generate up to 7200A of directcurrent in the transmission lines, which will increase their tem-perature in order for the ice to melt and fall of f. TheHVDCice™ system will be implemented at the Lévis substa-tion, a major connection point for the transmission lines of theprovince.

When not in use for de-icing purposes, AREVA’s innova-tive HVDCice™ system will act as a Static Var Compensator(SVC), to improve the power quality of the transmission net-work in a metropolitan region of Quebec. The SVC will stabi-lize the voltage on the 735 kV power grid, which can fluctuatedepending on the amount of electricity being consumed.

INDUSTRY NEWS

AREVA T&D WINS DE-ICING CONTRACTIN QUEBEC

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:23 PM

switchers, and the challenges faced by workers in main-taining reliability in utility and industrial electric substa-tions. Tips on inspection and rebuilding selective parts offerconsiderable savings compared to service time outs orinstalling entirely new devices.

Some of the exhibitors at this year ’s conferenceinclude AREVA T&D, Cannon Technologies, FLIR

Systems, General Electric, Siemens PowerT&D, The VON Corporation and VelconFilters Inc.The Doble Conference will be held at theWestin Hotel Copley Place, BostonMassachusetts. Metering America is at theRio Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas,Nevada. Both conferences run from April 10through to the 15.

involved in stimulating newbusiness opportunitiesbecause of grasp of emer gingtechnologies and the businessdirections of the enterprise.

- Information Manager:Runs significant businessunit, focusing on combiningsupply-and-demand roleswithin the business unit whileresponsible for delivering onspecific business-unit-levelservices.

During the same week,the 2005 InternationalConference of Doble Clients meets for the 72nd year inBoston.

The annual conference is highly regarded as the mostvaluable event in the world for the electric power industry .It is here that maintenance engineers and other utility repre-sentatives from around the world gather to exchange knowl-edge and experience in the vital sector of electrical appara-tus ownership, operation and maintenance.

The 2005 Conference will mark the 72nd year thatDoble Engineering has organized and hosted what is recog-nized as the industry’s premiere event.

One of the most unique aspects of the DobleConference is the fact that the agenda is designed exclu-sively by and for the benefit of the electric utility and test-ing company delegates. The Conference program is createdby nine ClientCommit tees ,each havingunique exper-tise in a partic-ular area.

For example, discussions on arresters, capacitors,cables and accessories will include Skip Hicks of EmersonProcess (ETI) talking about On-Line Partial Dischar geTesting of Medium Voltage, and recent research that ques-tions whether DC hipot testing is ef fective and whether itmight damage extruded cables.

Long Pong of Doble Engineering examines a specificcase of capacitor bank failure and the possibly related sub-sequent failure of two bushings installed on a voltage regu-lating transformer, and the analysis and field-testing of theunit afterwards.

Jon Hilgenkamp and David Myers of S&C ElectricCompany talk about getting the most out of older circuit-


DOBLE,METERING AMERICA

Contniued on Page 16

See related story on Doble Internationalon Page 24

A speaker at last year’s Doble conference.

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:23 PM

SEALING THE LEAK TO REDUCE GREENHOUSEGAS EMISSIONS

By Gary Lee Brown and Jim Hackett, COLT Power Services

COLT Power Services recentlyattended the SF6 & the EnvironmentConference in Scottsdale, Arizona. An esti-mated 100 people, includingEnvironmental Protection Agency andinternational government officials, attend-ed.

Discussionscentered on thepotential green-house effects ofSF6, or sulphurhexafluoride, andhow to reduce gasleakage. SF6 is aninsulating gasused in moderne l e c t r i c a lswitchgear andwas identified inthe Kyoto Proto-col as one of sixgreenhouse gasestargeted for reduc-tion. Nearly 80percent of all SF6gas produced isused by the elec-tric power indus-try.

COLT PowerServices has longbeen involved inthe reduction ofSF6 gas leakage,utilizing time-proven techniquesto repair SF6 gasleaks on variousc o m p o n e n t s .These repairs can,and are, madewhile the systemis under pressureand leaking, notrequiring theevacuation of gas.

A few examples of some typicalrepairs are depicted above:


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Continued on page 25

A T-Fitting leaking onSF6 Gas. A special T-Enclosure can be fab-ricated, installed andthen injected with our

sealant for a seal.

A typical T-Enclosuremade out of alu-

minum.

A 345kV BreakerBushing Terminal End.These are notorious

for leaking where theporcelain goes into

the aluminum terminalend.

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:23 PM


The surge generator or ‘thumper ’ isone of the oldest and most widely usedtools for locating failures in undergroundpower cable. The origin of the surge gen-erator dates back to the mid/late 1940swhen the James G. Biddle Companyintroduced the first commercially avail-able underground fault-locating instru-ment to the world. The instrument used atechnique known as capacitor dischar geand was used to both trace and pinpointunderground cable failures. Today thesurge generator serves as the backbone ofmany cable faultlocating techniquesand systems. Beforediscussing surge gen-erators and how toselect a proper unit, itis important to firstunderstand cablesand cable faults.

What is a CableFault?

The most com-mon electrical cablefault occurs as abreakdown betweenone of the systemphases and ground.Typically, this break-down results from aprocess known as ‘treeing’. In the case ofextruded dielectric cables, the treeingresults from water ingress within thecable and is commonly referred to as‘water treeing’ For laminated cables,

treeing results fromthe burning of insu-lating paper thusleaving carbon tracksor ‘carbon trees’ inthe insulating materi-al. Regardless ofwhether the faultbegins as a water treeor a carbon tree, asimplified diagramof this failure can berepresented by resistance R in parallel

with a spark gap G as shownin Figure 1. Resistance R, asit exists in the fault, may varyin value from a bolted solidshort circuit to a very highresistance due to surfaceleakage. The spark gap G islikely to be a jagged hole inthe insulation caused by thefault current. Its spacing mayrange from near zero to lar g-er than the original thicknessof insulation, and the gapspace may be filled with airor other gas, water, oil, or theburned remains of insulation.Cable faults display a widerange of values for R and G.The basic strategy of all faultlocation is to determine

where R and/or G differ from normal. Inthe technique of capacitor dischar ge,applying a high enough voltage to flashover the gap G creates a detectable audi-ble ballistic event.

Breaking down a Cable FaultThe capacitor discharge technique is

performed with a sur ge generator. Thisdevice converts line power into highvoltage, unidirectional, impulses that aretransmitted into a faulted power cable. Asimplified circuit of a sur ge generatorconnected to a faulted cable is shown inFigure 2. Capacitor C charges to the volt-age of the power supply. When switch S1closes, the capacitor C dischar ges intothe cable under test in the form of a highvoltage impulse. The red curve of Figure3 depicts the way that time af fects thevoltage at which a gap will flash over .The gap G in Figure 1 will behave in thismanner. Applying successively highervoltages to the gap and plotting the timelag until it sparks over develops thecurve. The curve shows that:

1. The higher the applied voltage,the shorter the time lags before flashoveroccurs.


SELECTING A SURGE GENERATOR FOR MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY

By Tom Sandri, Megger

Photo 1.Water tree in an extruded dielectric

Figure 1. Simplified Diagram of a Cable Fault


Photo 2. Carbon tree in a laminated cable Figure 2. Simplified circuit for a surge generator connected to a cable fault

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:26 PM

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ET2_05 4/1/05 3:26 PM


2. There is always a minimum timelag, as indicated by the ‘MinimumBreakdown Time’, under which the gapwill never flash over.

3. There is a minimum voltage,shown by the ‘Minimum BreakdownVoltage’, below which a gap will notflash over within a typical test period ofseveral minutes.

The curve demonstrates that forbreakdown to occur in any particularcable fault the applied impulse mustreach a particular voltage and it must lastfor a definite period of time to flash over.

Figure 3 also shows three dif ferentfault-locating impulses applied to a sparkgap. Note that the rise times are shortand, after reaching a controlled peak,their amplitudes decay at varying rates.Impulse (a) has suf ficient voltage andduration to cross the bold curve at a pointA and cause flashover . Impulse (b) hassufficient peak voltage but is too short induration to intersect the bold curve andwill not flash over; impulse (c) has thesame peak amplitude as (b) but is longenough in duration to cross the boldcurve at point C and achieve flashover.

Although the shape of the flashovercharacteristic curve is typical of all suchgaps, the actual curve will vary with eachcable fault and will be unpredictable. Tolocate a fault with the capacitor dischargetechnique, the sur ge generator must becapable of generating an impulse of suf-ficient voltage and time duration to cre-ate flashover. Performance of a sur gegenerator is based on its output voltageand energy capability. As mentioned ear-lier, when switch S1, of Figure 2, closes,the capacitor C discharges into the cableunder test in the form of a high voltageimpulse. The larger the value of capacitorC, the greater the amount of availableenergy for discharge into the fault. Thegreater the probability of intersecting thecharacteristic flashover curve of Figure3, the greater the signal level at the fault.

Effects of Cable Length on a SurgeGenerator

The length of the cable will af fect

the peak amplitude of the voltage thatreaches the fault. Cable capacitance willvary and is calculated based on unitlength.

The typical application for a sur gegenerator is to find faults that haveoccurred during service. The vast major-ity of faults that occur within a cable typ-ically breakdown at voltages lower than8 kV, however there may be situationswhere higher voltages are required. As ageneral rule, the voltage capability of thesurge generator should be equivalent tothe cable system’s peak operating voltageto ground to obtain maximum ef ficiencyin fault locating.

As an example, if a cable systemwere rated at 15 kV phase to phase, theeffective range of maximum perfor-mance for a 16 kV surge generator wouldbe 40,000 ft. (12.2 km) based on Figure4.

At 40,000 ft. (12.2km) Figure 4 showseffective voltage tobe 12.2 kV. Beyondthis distance theeffective voltagereaching the faultwill be below thepeak operating volt-age, phase toground, of the cir-cuit. This is not tosay that the sur gegenerator is inca-pable of breakingdown a fault beyondthis distance, itmerely points outthat efficiency willbegin to degrade. The stored energy ofa surge generator isalso affected bycable length. Toaccomplish a maxi-mum level of ef fi-ciency in fault loca-tion, the surge gener-ator should of fer asufficient capaci-tance to overcomethe capacitance ofthe cable under test.Sufficient energyprovides strong arcsused by detectionequipment such as

cable radar, acoustic and electromagneticdetectors. Figure 4 shows the ef fects ofcable length on a sur ge generatorequipped with a 12 mF capacitor . Theapplied voltage in this example is 16 kVand cable capacitance is given as 100 pFper foot.

SummaryThe surge generator or thumper

serves as a critical element in cable faultlocation. The device’s voltage and energycapability determine the ef ficiency atwhich faults can be broken down andlocated. When selecting a unit, consider-ation must be given to the type of cableand overall length being tested.

Tom Sandri is a Senior ApplicationEngineer, Cable Fault Locating, withMegger. Contact him [email protected]


SURGEContinued from Page 21

Figure 3. Typical Flashover Characteristics of Gap G.

Figure 4. Effects of cable length on stored energy

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:26 PM


Although Doble is best known inNorth America for its venerable ClientConference in Boston, it may surprisemany to know that the company hasmade great strides to be the source forapparatus know-how and diagnostictraining worldwide.

Having established itself in Europethrough the EuroDoble Colloquium, nowmanaged by Doble’ s European compa-nies, Doble PowerT est UK andTransiNor in Norway , the Colloquiumhas allowed Doble to provide theEuropean electric power community withan event that suits their unique localneeds.

Doble’s United Kingdom of fice

Doble PowerTest (DPT), successfullycompleted Doble’s first project in theKingdom of Saudi Arabia last year with acondition assessment project involvingWestinghouse generators. Part of DPT’ sbusiness portfolio is its expertise in test-ing and condition assessment ofTransformers and Generators, includingHigh Voltage Diagnostics and specialtests, such as Back Ener gization ofTransformers.

“Doble is uniquely positioned in theinternational marketplace,” says JerryJodice, Vice President of StrategicDevelopment for Doble Engineering, “Inthe last four years we’ve made a moreconcerted effort worldwide to be the

major source of apparatus maintenanceand asset management knowledge.”

Based in Boston, Massachusetts,USA, Doble is internationally recognizedas a leader in products and services tomaximize the safe and ef ficient deliveryof electric power. And while Doble hasbeen in business for over 80 years, it’ swhat the company is doing right nowthat’s truly exciting. Since Doble doesnot manufacture or market utility assetssuch as transformers, circuit breakers,insulators and bushings, they havealways been in a position to act as the“honest broker” of information related tothe performance of these system compo-

INDUSTRY NEWS

DOBLE’S STRENGTH LAY IN ITSINTERNATIONAL EXPERTISE

By Don Horne

Continued on page 29

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:26 PM

CONCLUSIONOn oil and nitrogen repairs that have a grooved or recessed

area where the O-ring or gasket lies is a perfect spot to penetrateusing a drill-and-tap technique. By intersecting this grooved area,there is a channel where sealant can travel around creating a seal.

On other repairs, such as SF6 gas, COLT technicians create abarrier (fabricate a clamp) around the leaking component andinject the cavity of that piece of hardware to obtain a seal. Thisspecial hardware allows for sealant to be injected under pressure.

Orange & Rockland Utilities Inc., a wholly owned subsidiaryof Con Edison, has been conducting a study using COL T’s ser-vice. This study began over two years ago and involves havingCOLT repair various types of oil leaks and then monitoring theresults. To date, Orange and Rockland have been happy with therepairs completed and plan to continue to use Colt for theserepairs.

COLT credits their success to repairing oil, nitrogen and SF6gas leaks to the dedication and experience of their employees.

Gary Lee Brown and Jim Hackett are with COLT Power Services.They can be r eached Toll Free at (866) 572-5325 or email:[email protected]


SEALING THE LEAK

Leak

Through Hole

Strong-backing Hole

Sealant Inj. Hole

The picture (above right) shows a 345kV Breaker Bushing that hasa SF6 Gas leak between the porcelain bushing OD and the alu-minum flange ID (see arrow). The picture (at right) shows an alu-minum hub clamp installed and sealed for the solution to thisproblem. The photo above shows the use of existing flange boltsin pulling the clamp down for obtaining the hub seal. Hence,strong-backing is the term. The hub seal is located on the insideface of the clamp. It is activated after pulling it down tight upagainst the existing flange outside face. Note: A total of 6 boltswere used for strong-backing. Through holes on the clamp wereused to accommodate the other bolts. Other style clamps can befabricated to seal SF6 Gas leaks. Trained technicians take appro-priate measurements on many different component configurationsso special hardware can be designed & fabricated for installation.

Continued from page 20

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:26 PM


A new, state-of-the-art Kalar MTS(Municipal Transformer Station) facilityis now providing electricity to meet thecurrent and future needs of the growingCity of Niagara Falls.

The $8 million Niagara Falls HydroKalar MTS receives electricity fromHydro One’s high-voltage transmissionlines and then transforms the power tothe appropriate voltage for distribution toresidences and business in the city . Atfull capacity, the Kalar MTS can feed thepeak electricity needs of approximately3,800 homes or 50 large hotels.

“This significant investment byNiagara Falls Hydro is important for eco-nomic development in terms of matchingthe growth in both our residential andcommercial sectors with a secure andreliable supply of electricity ,” saidNiagara Falls Mayor Ted Salci.

The Kalar MTS serves the southwestsection of Niagara Falls and providesrelief to the Murray Street and StanleyAvenue Transformer Stations.

Construction ofthe Kalar Roadfacility began inSeptember 2003.

“We haveseen growth in thecity’s electricityload of approxi-mately 2.5 percent per year ,”said Brian Wilkie,P r e s i d e n t ,Niagara FallsHydro. “TheKalar MTS has anavailable capacity to handle that rate ofgrowth for the next 15 years. Half of thatcapacity is connected now and the otherhalf will come on line when required.”

The huge transformers on the site,located inside a compound surroundedby high block walls, feature the latesttechnology for safety and security . Theequipment located inside theTransformer Station is state-of-the-art

and is operated within and remotely by asophisticated computer and SCADA sys-tem (Supervisory Control And DataAcquisition).

“I’m also pleased to note that theNiagara Falls Hydro property adjacent tothe facility, which is used for the newhome for girls’ soccer, will continue to beavailable for community use,” addedWilkie.

INDUSTRY NEWS

NEW KALAR MTS TO MEET PEAK ELECTRICITYNEEDS IN NIAGARA

By Don Horne

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:26 PM

In a place best known for producing cotton and blues musi-cians, Delta Electric Power Association is introducing auto-matic meter reading (AMR). This rural co-op, based in westcentral Mississippi, recently committed to deploy the Turtle®System from Hunt Technologies to its nearly 25,000 members.

“We wanted AMR, first and foremost, to get daily meterreads,” says Harold Pittman, chief engineer at Delta Electric.“We chose Hunt Technologies because their power line carriersystem had more going for it and was clearly the most cost effi-cient system we looked at.”

Delta Electric is on schedule to install the entire system inabout two years. So far , the co-op has deployed about 7,000endpoints. The co-op began an initial deployment of 2,600 end-points in early 2004, and is on pace to complete installation ata new substation every other month.

Based in Greenwood, Delta Electric serves residential,commercial and agricultural accounts in parts of 13 counties. Itaverages 4.3 meters per mile of line, and doesn’t directly serveany large townsor cities.

Two-thirds ofthe utility’s ser-vice area lieswithin theMississippi delta,a diamond-shaped area alongthe Mississippiriver known forits rich topsoil. Most of the electricity provided to this regionpowers irrigation pumps and aerators for an emer ging catfishfarming industry. The “hill area” in the eastern third of the co-op’s service territory, on the other hand, is primarily residential.

“It’s like operating two dif ferent systems,” Pittman says.“The agricultural and commercial customers are mostly 480vthree-phase systems. The other part of our system is primarilysingle-phase residential.”

Pittman said Delta Electric is using the GE kV2c meterwith the factory-installed TS2 endpoint for its three-phasemeter applications. In the future, he said, the utility may con-sider using the load control capabilities of the Turtle System toremotely control loads to irrigation pumps and other agricul-tural equipment.

Another benefit of the Turtle System is the interfacebetween the Command Center™ operating software andPartner Software System that Delta Electric already had in use.


By Don Horne

RURAL MISSISSIPPIUTILITY GOES TO

AUTOMATICMETER READING

“IT’S LIKE OPERATING TWO DIF-FERENT SYSTEMS,” PITTMAN SAYS.

“THE AGRICULTURAL AND COMMER-CIAL CUSTOMERS ARE MOSTLY 480V

THREE-PHASE SYSTEMS. THE OTHERPART OF OUR SYSTEM IS PRIMARILY

SINGLE-PHASE RESIDENTIAL.”

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:26 PM


In 1999, many Northeastern elec-tric utilities faced a brand new anduncertain commodity market requiredfor operations: the nitrous oxide (NOx)emission allowance (EA) market. Thisnew market poses a serious constraintto utilities, with the potential to sub-stantially increase total power produc-tion costs and to force plant shutdownsif emissions exceeded limits. The chal-lenge was compounded by the uncer-tain function and behavior of a brandnew market.

This market was created inresponse to the 1990 Clean Air ActAmendments, with the goal of cost-effective reduction in summer ozonelevels. A consortium of Northeasternstates formed the Ozone TransportCommission (OTC) and agreed in 1994to allow interstate trading of NOx cred-its over an 11-state region — the OTR— including the District of Columbia.The OTC’s Budget Rule af fects majorelectric utilities, independent powerproducer, and industrial sources operat-ing boilers with heat inputs in excess of250 MBtu per hour, or electric genera-tors with output greater than 15 MW .Over 450 sources in the Northeast arereceiving an allocation of NOxallowances to cover their NOx emis-sions during the May to Septemberperiod.

EA uncertainties create real risksLike power markets, the NOx EA

market can show substantial volatilityand EA price risk. For example, a latesummer heat wave or nuclear outagecould boost emissions when there is lit-tle time for offsetting NOx reductions,sending NOx prices skyward. Also, theNOx EA market has compliance risk— with a fixed supply of EAs, certaincombinations of weather, planning, andplant outages could lead to OTR emis-sions exceeding the EA supply. As aresult, some utilities would be out of

compliance for the season, bringingpenalties, public criticism, and reduc-tions in future EA allocations. Theexperience of the New England PowerPool in 1997, when various unit out-ages and high electricity demandresulted in high ozone-season NOxemissions, illustrated this possibility.

NOx market participants face aseries of tasks before and during eachNOx season. Aside from short-termplant control changes, risk managerswill be evaluating the need to buy/sellEAs to manage compliance and pricerisk (Figure 1).

It is primarily the specter of anNOx EA supply shortage that creates achallenge. Decision-makers mustanswer questions such as:

Since there could be shortages inthe NOx EA market, holding an inven-tory of EAs may be wise. How lar geshould it be in each week of the ozone

season? Should NOx EA options be bought

or sold to reduce risk? How would an EA shortage affect

power purchases and sales, and genera-tion operations?

How can ef fective price and riskmanagement strategies be developed?

Model simulates costs and outcomesWith the NOx market’s real-world

complexities, closed-form analyses ofrisks are not practical. However, MonteCarlo simulation of market outcomes isfeasible, particularly with the use of aspreadsheet add-in such as CrystalBall®. Such a spreadsheet implemen-tation requires more computing powerthan a programmed model, but makesthe model transparent to users andallows for inexpensive customization


ANALYZING ELECTRIC UTILITY NOX EMISSIONALLOWANCE TRADING STRATEGIES

By Frank Selker, Decision Management Associates LLC

Figure 1: NOx Decisions. Risk managers will need to focus on evaluating the need to buyand sell EAs to manage compliance risk (bold oval).


ET2_05 4/1/05 3:26 PM

of new substations of all voltage classes every year , not tomention the thousands of kilometers of lines which need to beestablished!”

Doble hopes to work with the Chinese power communityto provide training and knowledge to support this rapidgrowth. Their engineers can benefit by benchmarking newequipment, establishing standardized test practices, and begincollecting data in preparation for future needs and analysis.

Doble provides their clients with an On-line Center , giv-ing them access to a vast database of information via the web.Clients have always counted on their relationships with theirDoble Client Service Engineers - these engineers work inclose partnership with customers, analyzing test data and han-dling service issues, providing a wealth of knowledge andexpertise. Now that interaction is also available on-line,enabling the round the clock support that is so critical intoday’s fast-paced global marketplace.

As Doble continues its international marketing efforts, theDoble library will be enhanced by the addition of technicalpresentations, test results and knowledge from other countries.Doble’s ultimate goal is to develop its library into a truly inter-national resource, with information provided in dif ferent lan-guages.

nents. For decades, Doble has been collecting and storing whatis now an incredible treasure trove of valuable apparatus main-tenance data. Simply put, there exists no comparable knowl-edge base of information for this industry. Doble has been, andcontinues to be, theelectric utility’s“librarian”.

Just last year ,Doble held over 50seminars worldwide,with each seminar tai-lored to the clients’unique needs in eachregion.

In 2004, Dobleopened an of fice inVadodara, India, inorder to provide after -sales technical supportin India and Asia.

“When we startedto do training events in India, we brought our employees andour presenters,” says Mr. Jodice. “Now it’s like Doble (confer-ences) in the U.S., with local clients making presentations onsubjects of local interest. It is the same approach that we willbe taking in China later this year.”

“In Latin America, Doble provides conferences and train-ing seminars – in Portugese for Brazil and in Spanish forMexico. We had 200 delegates turn out for the recent Mexicanseminar and 150 in Brazil. That says a lot.”

Doble’s reputation as a “knowledge provider” throughoutthe industry makes it unique insofar as the seminars they hold.

“I don’t know any other company who talks about appa-ratus technology and insulation equipment without pushingtheir own product,” says Mr . Jodice. “W ith Doble’s confer-ences, people know they are getting substantive informationand expertise, not a product pitch.”

In addition to Doble events in India, Australia, Singapore,Mexico, Brazil, the UK and Poland was their participation inCIGRE Paris 2004, where Doble staf fers participate in studycommittee activities for Insulation and Transformers. In IEEand IEEE, Doble staff are members of standards-making com-mittees, helping to guide the latest industry advancements.

And it is this wealth of expertise and knowledge thatDoble hopes to bring to the vast, mostly untapped market ofChina, where a new Doble of fice has recently opened inBeijing.

“Generation in China is growing at the rate of 6% per year- that includes hydro, nuclear and fossil, “ says Mr . Jodice,“That level of growth will require the construction of hundreds


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“GENERATION IN CHINA ISGROWING AT THE RATE OF 6%

PER YEAR - THAT INCLUDESHYDRO, NUCLEAR AND FOSSIL, “SAYS MR. JODICE, “THAT LEVEL OF

GROWTH WILL REQUIRE THECONSTRUCTION OF HUNDREDSOF NEW SUBSTATIONS OF ALLVOLTAGE CLASSES EVERY YEAR,NOT TO MENTION THE THOU-

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LISHED!”

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:26 PM

of inputs, system parameters, and outputs. This flexibilityand transparency is a crucial advantage, especially in anindustry that is changing as fast as the electric power indus-try is today.

A simulation must evaluate thousands of market sce-narios to reliably estimate costs and risks, representingcombinations of EA prices, power prices, plant operationand outages, and EA market conditions and transactions foreach week of the NOx season. A complete picture of riskscan then be developed by compiling the scenarios’ costs(power generation, power transactions, EA purchases andsales, option purchase and exercise) and NOx complianceoutcomes.

I created the “NOx Assessor” simulation model withfunding from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)in collaboration with Dr. Gordon Hester, the EPRI ProjectManager. The model is fundamentally a spreadsheet modelof an electric utility’s operations, with sections devoted to:

Demand for electric power Costs of power generation Long-term power contracts Plant outages

Emission rates Power and NOx price behavior NOx market behavior

There are uncertainties (Crystal Ball “assumptions”) inmost sections. There are also correlations among severalvariables – for example a hot summer will increase bothpower demand and power cost. These correlations are crit-ical to the behavior of the model, and so require carefulattention in setting up runs. Ideally, they are estimated fromhistoric data, which is relatively plentiful in the electricpower industry.

The NOx EA price during the season is a key uncer-tainty and is modeled as following geometric Brownianmotion (a.k.a. an “Ito process”), which is a common way tomodel stock market prices. Unlike a typical stock marketmodel, however, volatility may be specified as varying byweek. Another key uncertainty is how the NOx market willbehave when a shortage occurs that prevents trading. Tomodel this the user can:

Specify a probability of market shutdown by week of theseason, Specify a specific time at which a shutdown occurs, andmost realistically Specify price bounds which trigger a market shutdown

For most runs, one or two variables are identified asCrystal Ball “decision variables.” These are varied overmultiple simulations with the decision table tool, with (1)NOx inventory levels at one or two times during the season,and/or (2) NOx option purchases or sales at one or twotimes during the season. A typical analysis allows a com-parison of the risks and costs associated with several inven-tory level and/or option purchase choices.

One advantage of spreadsheet modeling is that anyvariable of interest (a Crystal Ball “forecast”) may be mon-itored during runs to assess the realism of the model. Forexample, the production of each plant, fuel consumption,up- and downtimes, and various costs can be monitored andchecked against experience and historic data. This lets mod-elers identify data or modeling errors and build confidencein the model’s realism.

The spreadsheet model is about 1.4 MB in size andtakes about one quarter of a second for each recalculationon a Pentium II 400 MHz computer . A typical run mightinclude ten decision variable values and 5,000 iterations, or50,000 recalculations, taking about four hours. If two deci-sion variables are varied (e.g., to evaluate interaction ofinventory size and use of options) over five values each, therun is complete in about ten hours. While a minimum of2,000 trials was required per scenario, a minimum of 5,000trials was preferred since extreme outcomes are of greatimportance. For example, the risk of a NOx market shut-down just when NOx EAs are needed is a possible scenariothat must be accounted for in the model.

By analyzing alternative strategies, price and compli-ance, risk can be balanced against expected costs. Forexample, the model can evaluate two major NOx risk man-agement decisions: (1) the value and timing of NOx EAinventory buildup, and (2) the use and pricing of various


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ET2_05 4/1/05 3:26 PM

As inventory levels increase from zero inventory , therisk of high-cost scenarios declines, since shortages andpenalties are less likely. For example, with a tar get inven-

types of options. The model canalso be used to explore howother uncertainties af fect out-comes – for example, the occur-rence of a steep decline in EAprices if it becomes apparentduring the NOx season thatthere will be no shortages.

Finally, the model can beused in an optimization mode(using OptQuest, the crystalBall optimization program) tosearch for strategies that mini-mize or maximize selected vari-ables while meeting specifiedconstraints – for examplesearching for the inventory sizethat minimizes cost while keep-ing noncompliance risk below aspecified likelihood.

How Big of an EA Buffer doYou Need?

EA inventory acts as a buffer, covering emissions for atime even if EA shortages develop. Bigger inventory pro-vides a greater buf fer and lower risk of noncomplianceHowever, a large inventory can also be expensive – partic-ularly if everyone is trying to build them, driving EApricesup. Figures 2 and 3 are example outputs of hypotheticalanalyses using the author ’s simulation to explore risks ofalternative inventory policies for a lar ge NOx emitter –note that these results could change dramatically for differ-ent generation mixes and other assumptions.

Figure 2 shows compliance risk for various tar getinventory sizes at a hypothetical utility . The y-axis is theprojected season shortfall, that is, the number of tons bywhich emissions exceed allowances at the end of the NOxseason. The x-axis is the tar get inventory level, i.e., thenumber of EAs that are held in excess of emissions duringeach week of the season. It is a “target” because a shortageof EAs may make them unavailable in the market, reduc-ing inventory below this target.

Each curve in Figure 2 corresponds to a likelihood ofthe shortfall level for the inventory levels. For example, theshortfall has only a 2% chance of exceeding the 2% curve.No curves above 5% appear because, in this analysis, therewas only about a 5% chance of shortfall even with noinventory. As inventories increase, the size of shortfallsdecreases, with each curve falling to the x-axis (zero short-fall) when the chance of a shortfall is less than the likeli-hood of that curve. For example, a 13,000 ton target inven-tory reduces the risk of a shortfall to less than 0.5% and a9,000 ton inventory brings the shortfall risk to less than1%.

But what about cost? Figure 3 shows how the net costof buying/selling allowances during the NOx season (y-axis, including penalties for shortfalls), varies with inven-tory level (x-axis). Each curve represents a likelihood, inFigure 3 showing the likelihood that compliance costs willexceed various amounts.



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NERC 1300 (draft version 1.0,Sept 15, 2004) is the latest securitystandard along with revisions, pro-posed by the North AmericanReliability Counsel for NorthAmerican electricity local distributioncarriers and power generators. Thisproposed new standard is intended tosupplant the NERC 1200 standard, andwill place onerous demands upon thecomplying agencies to upgrade policy ,documentation, training, and technolo-gy. Power companies are alreadyexpressing concern about how to mini-mize time to implement, once execu-tive committees commit to the stan-dard.

Clearly, implementers will needsome help. Implementers could investi-gate third party expertise to minimizethe time to implement, by outsourcingauthorship of policies, procedures, anddocumentation, which are specified ineach of sections 1301 through 1308.

As well, outsourcers can jump startthe deployment of sophisticated tech-nology such as 24 hour per day , 7 dayper week Intrusion detection, retentionof system logs, and ensuring theintegrity of the security perimeter ofthe cyber assets.

Outsourcers can also acceleratetraining, which inevitably allows thepower company to see what deliver-ables are actually meaningful to themfrom a new technology or a new docu-mentation process. In essence, the out-sourced services provide a quick“proof of concept” to the power com-pany, who may then decide to modifytheir requirements, retain the out-sourced services, or use their acquiredknowledge to redeploy in-house.

Power companies may considertime and cost saving ideas indicatedbelow by subject.


NERC 1300 MADE EASIER

By Ron Lepofsky, ERE Information Security


ET2_05 4/1/05 3:29 PM

options and inventory , revealing the mix giving the bestrisk and cost performance.

Figure 4 shows the 1% noncompliance risk (analogousto 1% curve in Figure 2) for another hypothetical example

tory of 4,000 EAs the risk of costsexceeding $40 million drops below 2%for the hypothetical utility . However,costs begin drifting back upward withincreasing inventory, reflecting the risksof holding excess allowances at seasonend, which must then be sold at a dis-count or held for the next season.

Since NOx costs will be a smallpart of utility operating costs, someprice risk may be acceptable, and themean or expected cost should be con-sidered. The mean cost is shown with aheavy dashed line in Figure 3, scaled tothe expanded right hand axis. Mean cost is not highly sen-sitive to inventory level, varying by about 10% from itsminimum at an inventory of 3,000 tons to it’ s maximum at15,000 tons.

Given the modest cost impacts in this hypotheticalanalysis, compliance risk (Figure 2) should probably be theprimary determinant of inventory level. For instance, if a1% chance of noncompliance is acceptable, then the tar getinventory level should be 9,000 tons. Although this leveladds about $500,000 to expected compliance cost (meancost of $12.5 million versus the minimum mean value ofabout $12 million with 3,000 tons of inventory), it keepscompliance risk below 1% (Figure 2), and also keeps thechance of costs exceeding $30 million below 1% (Figure 3).

Black-Scholes Is Not AdequatePurchasing options to buy allowances of fers another

hedge against NOx EA shortage and noncomplianceValuing such options can be tricky , given particular optioncosts, exercise prices, exercise dates, inventory decisions,generation plans, and so on.

A Black-Scholes analysis captures ef fects of volatilityassuming asset prices follow a geometric random walk withuniform volatility. While this may be appropriate for stockprices, it is inadequate in a market that may experienceshortages, where prices are correlated among interactingcommodities (e.g., power and EA prices), and where thereare compliance issues – essentially non-symmetric, nonlin-ear costs of various inventory levels at season end.Simulation offers the most practical approach to valuingoptions when such conditions violate assumptions neededfor closed-form analysis.

To illustrate this difference we recently analyzed a real-istic NOx call option using both the Black-Scholes formulaand a full simulation. The Black-Scholes formula gave avalue of about $125/option, while the simulation revealedan actual value of about $400/option, in part due to reducedrisk of noncompliance fines. Simulation also allows explor-ing the cost and risk tradeof fs of various combinations of


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SCADA and Corporate IT SecurityCreate a Joint NERC 1300 TaskForce

The corporate IT infrastructurecould certainly benefit by complyingwith NERC 1300, even though thestandard basically ignores corporate IT.A higher degree of security for corpo-rate IT could reduce downside costsresulting from liabilities such as identi-ty theft, contravention of privacy legis-lation, and non-compliance withSarbanes-Oxley (SOX) for public cor-porations listed on US stockexchanges.

As well, corporate and SCADAsecurity compliance groups certainlyneed to cooperate on the matter ofsecuring the electronic perimeter of thekey cyber assets. Issues of connectivityof servers on both sides of the perime-ter such as email and billing servers,and end-user access to Internet forbrowsing, are areas of common con-cern to both IT groups.

Shared resources of two groupsmay substantially decrease the time toplan and to deploy.

Time and cost savingrecommendation:

SCADA and corporate securitycompliance groups form a joint NERC1300 task force.

Foresight: Compliance to theHighest Standard or Jurisdiction

The adage of “measure twice, cut

once” applies here. It is often lessexpensive and painful to investigateand combine the best of all relevantstandards and recommendations priorto implementing any one standard. Forinstance, the US Department of Energyand ISACA publish recommendationsfor SCADA cyber security and a pre-scriptive standard for IT Controls forSOX compliance respectively.

Time and pain saving recommenda-tions:1. The NERC 1300 task force should

investigate the recommendationsfor securing SCADA which areprovided in the document titled“21 Steps to Improve CyberSecurity for SCADA Networks,”published by the (US) Departmentof Energy and the President’ sCritical Infrastructure ProtectionBoard.

2. For corporations with SOX compli-ance requirements and who havecreated a joint SCADA/CorporateJoint NERC 1300 task force,investigate ISACA’s suggestionsfor SOX requirements which areprovided in the document titled“IT Control Objectives forSarbanes-Oxley”.

Documentation and PolicyRequirements throughout theStandard

Since many power companies willbe tackling documentation process, andsince many consulting companies haveexpertise in creating such documenta-tion, it would be simple and useful toconfer with other power companies andconsultants, in order to find a templatewhich most closely matches an imple-menter’s requirements.

Time saving recommendation:Confer with associates at other

power companies, during industry con-ventions, and consultants, about theavailability of templates of documenta-tion.

Self Certification Requirementsthroughout the Standard

Self-certification of compliancemonitoring processes has several draw-backs, as follows:1. Self certification or auditing does

not employ a basic security funda-mental of impartiality.

2. Power company employees may nothave the expert skills or experience

for auditing security infrastructureand policy.

3. Auditing is time consuming4. Senior executives and certainly part-

nering organizations favor theopinion of third party auditors overaudit results presented by in-houseemployees.

5. Most in-house certification or auditreports do not convey the recom-mendations both in terms of proce-dural actions and in terms of ROIbenefits, which senior executivescan understand and act upon.

Time saving recommendation:Consider outsourcing certification

or auditing to third-party experts, par-ticularly those with expertise in con-veying recommendations in ROI terms.

1304 Electronic Security and 1306Systems Security Management

Several of the technology recom-mendations are time consuming toimplement.

For instance, intrusion detection(IDS), which is specified in paragraph(a) (3) of 1304, may be simple to ini-tially install, but requires considerableexpertise and time to “tune” the servicein order to make it useful. If the IDS isnot properly tuned, it may overload thehost network with nonsensical data,and may not clearly indicate actual orattempted intrusions.

Similarly, paragraph (a) (4) of1306 specifies integrity software suchas anti-virus, anti-T rojans etc, all ofwhich are relatively straightforward toimplement. However, they generatelarge event logs, which need to bereviewed.

In fact, the issue of event logs isspecified in paragraphs (a) (6) and (b)(6) also of 1306. Event logs are lar ge,arcane, constantly produced docu-ments. Event logs are produced by allsecurity and data servers, includingSCADA servers. In order to complywith the requirements to review logs ofcritical cyber assets 24 hours per day, 7days per week, the implementer wouldrequire automated event log analysis.

In order to comply with the spiritand intent of the paragraphs, the imple-menter would require automated eventcorrelation technology, which wouldcompare the vulnerabilities identifiedacross all the logs, and look for riskpatterns.

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From Tim Parks, Electrical Utility MaintenanceSupervisor for the City of Ashland, Ohio:

“I find the magazine very informative and look forward toreceiving it each month. I enjoy the safety articles. Canyou start an ‘It happened to me’ section each month aboutnear misses or accidents others have had so we can learnfrom? Just a thought. Thanks.

Jerry Tang-Kong, a Certification Engineering for CSAInternational in Toronto, Ontario says:

“Articles are very informative.”

Terry Ogden, P .Eng., Territory Manager of PBW HighVoltage Ltd., wanted to express his gratitude to one ofthe speakers at a recent forum we held:

“Mr. Pablo Diaz (of Grounding Systems Technologies), Ienjoyed your Seminar in Toronto and will definitely beable to utilize the information provided.”

We are always looking for comments from our readers. Youcan reach the editor to share your views at:

[email protected]

no-load sound power level at 15.6% over -excitation inguaranteed tap position: 59 dB(A)

no-load sound power level at 15.6% over -excitation inextreme tap position: 71 dB(A)

load sound power level at 65 MV A: 73dB(A)

Since the no-load noise level in the guaran-teed tap position is quite low the total trans-former noise is almost identical to the loadnoise. The maximum deviation of the measurednoise levels for the four identical units is ±2 dB.

5. SummaryMore severe restrictions for noise emission

require a further reduction of the transformernoise, so the load noise becomes more and moreimportant in comparison to the no-load noise.

Starting with the physical principles ofnoise development, the paper discusses andevaluates general possibilities of noise reduc-tion. By application of some of these noisereduction measures on four identical transform-ers for Consolidated Edison Company , deliv-ered by Siemens TransformatorenwerkNürnberg, Germany, the efficacy of these mea-sures could be proven. In comparison with atransformer delivered in 1991 with identical

electrical parameters the noise level was reduced by 9 dB.The relevance of load noise for low-noise transformers isdemonstrated by the measured sound power levels; loadnoise is clearly dominant in comparison with the no-loadnoise in the guaranteed tap position.


SAFETY ARTICLES SPARK READER’S INTEREST

LOW NOISEContinued from Page 15

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:29 PM


The variety of technical solutions providing protection tooperators of electrical engineering product (EEP) against elec-tric shock isn’ t reflected in the current standards of the IEC(International Electrical Commission), by indexation of EEPwith classes of electrical safety by protection method.Nowadays, such technical solutions are based on the followingmethods of operator protection corresponding to the followingIEC safety classes:• Protection by insulations – main, dual, reinforced (strength-

ened). Protection by main insulation is covered by IECclass 0. Protection by either dual or reinforced (strength-ened) insulation is covered by IEC class II;

• Protection by insulation in combination with grounding ofmetal non-conductive parts is covered by IEC classes 01and I;

• Protection by safe super low voltage of power supply is cov-ered by IEC class III.

Existing IEC classification of electrical safety by protec-tion method (further throughout this text – IEC classification)doesn’t cover operator protection emer gency switch-offdevices, appropriate casing, interlocks preventing physical con-tact with EEP conductive parts, and the circuits galvanic sepa-ration. It does divide the method of electric shock protection –grounding – into two independent classes (01 and I) which isillogical, and at that point, for example, neither of these classescovers one more method of grounding. The supporting (mount-ing) surface contacting the metal base that is grounding withoutthe element for grounding widely used in EEP of differentdesigns. One more important point is that the above dif ferentmethods of EEP safety design provide different protection lev-els for the person/operator which is absolutely missed by exist-ing IEC classification.

However, these classifications cover the following meth-ods of person/operator protection:

- protection through main insulation,- protection through dual (doubled) or reinforced(strength-

ened) insulation, - protection through grounding of non-conductive metal

parts,- protection through the means of emer gency switch-off

devices (upon overload and/or short circuit; upon leakage of acurrent over insulation) and/or appropriate casing, interlocks,galvanic separation of circuits, all of them combined with theabove listed methods,

- protection using safe super low voltage of power supply .

In the classification of EEP grounding methods, the differ-ent levels of insulation (main, dual or strengthened) of metalnon-conductive parts from conductive ones are combined with

different types of grounding (single or dual grounding). It issupposed that the reliability of the dual grounding is higher thanthat of a single grounding. As a result, the whole diversity ofEEP grounding methods is reduced to three groups with thegreater group number corresponding to the higher safety levelof the operator.

The following dif ferent levels of operator safety can beprovided with regard to the protection methods:

- standard (A),- reinforced (B),- increased (C),- high (D),- maximum (E).

These suggested combinations of protection methods withprovided safety levels of the person/operator are ultimately theclasses of EEP electrical safety according to suggested classifi-cation: more differential, informative and comprehensive thanones used at the current IEC classification. Thus the suggestedclassification of EEP electrical safety includes the followingeleven classes: 1A, 2B, 3B, 3C, 4B, 4C, 5B, 5C, 5E, 6C, 6E.

The pattern of codes of these classes characterizes theadopted technical solutions on protection methods, and thelevel of safety for the person/operator.

It should be pointed out that the level of safety provided tothe person-operator must be adequate to the severity of EEPusage conditions - the more severe they are the higher the levelof provided safety . For example, dual grounding improvesoperator safety during the exposure of operated EEP to themechanical impacts because of the impossibility of simultane-ous disruption of two independent grounding circuits.

It is important to note that, for the customer ordering spec-ified EEP using hereby suggested classification, it is suf ficientin many cases just to indicate the required EEP safety level; atthat point the designer will be free to choose the protectionmethod meeting the customer ’s requirement who is free tochoose the appropriate class of EEP electrical safety.

The discussion of advantages and disadvantages of thesuggested classification of EEP electrical safety by the expertscan become a subject of debate on the pages of professionalpublications, and could precede the probable proposal to intro-duce suggested classification into status of InternationalElectrical Commission’s (IEC) standard document. Vitaliy Myasnikov earned his BSc.EE fr om KharkovPolitechnical Institute, Kharkov. Since 1973 he has worked inan electrical laboratory as part of the pr oduct design depart-ment specializing in low voltage electric apparatus and safetyfigure evaluation. He is curr ently lead engineer working onproduct certification in r egards to compliance to safety stan-dards.


CLASSIFICATION OF ELECTRICSHOCK HAZARDS NEEDS RE-EXAMINATION

By V. Myasnikov, Electrical Engineer, Ukraine

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:29 PM

For example, intrusion detectionlogs may not alarm on sporadic, unsuc-cessful attempts by an IP address (per-son) to access a variety of servers.However, event log correlation tech-nology might identify that in fact thesame IP address (person) over anextended period of two weeks, had, infact, unsuccessfully attempted accessto several SCADA-related servers.This would certainly qualify as a secu-rity risk meriting investigation.

Once again, log event correlationtechnology is sophisticated to installand to tune, taking considerable time tosuccessfully accomplish, plus its pricetag is $500,000 - $1,000,000 for a net-work with many servers.

Time saving and cost saving recom-mendation:

Implementers should seriouslyconsider evaluating outsourced techno-logical solutions, even if only for oneyear “proof of concept” periods, and inorder to minimize time to comply.

“Delta Reporting”: A Missing LinkWhile the standard specifies moni-

toring and alerting on intrusions andsecurity events, the standard does notgive a prescriptive definition of how tocreate meaningful, action-orientedreports from the mass of data that willbe created from the monitoring, alert,and event log data.

The key here is to summarize allthe security data into “delta” or changereports, which identify new securityevents and recommend how to dealwith them. This action oriented infor-mation is important for dealing withpotential or actual crisis.

The underlying voluminous data isalso important for analyzing trends,forensic investigation, evidence, andfor attestation.

Without a process or technology tocreate “delta” reports, the ROI on theunderlying capital investment in tech-nology is close to zero %.

Time Saving and ROI preservingrecommendation:

The implementer should give seri-ous consideration to acquiring aprocess or technology which will sum-marize all their new monitoring, alert-ing, and event log data into usefulaction-oriented, “delta” reports. Thetwo most important features are identi-fication of new security events andrecommendations on how to deal withthem.

1307 Incident Response Planning(IRP) and 1308 Recovery Plan(DRP)

Best practices for IRP and DRPplans involve creating thick, verbosedocuments, which are dif ficult to useduring a crisis. In comparison, spread

37


NERC


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Utilities and industrial plants make extensive use ofmedium voltage (5 to 35 kV) power cables. In many casesthese cable are approaching or have exceeded their designlife. In this article the available methods of on-site cablecondition assessment or diagnostic testing are covered.

Condition assessment testing does not mean simply“proof” or “high-pot” testing. Condition assessment test-ing, although it should find serious defects, is not a simplego/no-go test, but is designed to provide a ranking of thecable system and assist in prioritizing future cable mainte-nance and replacement. No cable tests have yet been dis-covered which will determine the “remaining life” of acable. The ultimate purpose of cable condition assessmentis to improve system reliability and minimize long-termcost.

Most modern cables have a polymeric insulation,either polyethylene (PE) or Ethylene-Propylene Rubber(EPR). Older design medium voltage cables were Paper -Insulated Lead-Covered (PILC). Any diagnostic testingmust take into account the cable design.

When doing cable condition assessment testing thework can be broken into five parts:

• Metallic shield or neutral• Jacket – on some cables• Accessories – splices and terminations• Local environment and operating conditionsThe tests used in each of these parts may dif fer

depending on the design of the cable. The tests availablefor each of the five basic parts with reference to the twodesigns of cable will be discussed further.

Insulation Testing At present there is no standard condition assessment

test for cable insulation. In fact no one test is yet a clearleader or will tell everything about the insulation. Table 1lists tests that are now available for insulation evaluationon the market in North America. They are divided into“general health tests”, which look at the condition of allthe insulation and cannot locate problems, and “partialdischarge locators”, which can locate partial dischar gesthat are signs of incipient faults along the cable system.Most of these tests are relatively new to cable diagnostics,being developed in the last 10 or so years. Each providesinformation about insulation “quality” and will give indi-cations of degraded insulation. The results of a test aresubject to interpretation.

The Insulated Conductors Committee (ICC) of theIEEE Power Engineering Society has a working group to


ON-SITE CONDITION ASSESSMENT OF MEDIUMVOLTAGE CABLE

By Vern Buchholz, P.Eng., Powertech Labs Inc.


Modern XLPE Insulated Feeder Cable with copper shield/neutral andPVC Jacket

Older 3-Phase PILC Cable without Jacket. Note the phases are notindividually shielded.

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:30 PM

develop a series of guides on cable field testing. They haverecently published the first guide in a series: IEEE Std 400-2001, “IEEE Guide for Field Testing and Evaluation of theInsulation of Shielded Power Cable Systems.”

At Powertech Labs we have been using a technologycalled LIpATEST. We developed LIpATEST and have beenusing it on XLPE over the last 10 years and more recentlyon PILC. The technique applies a stepwise increasing dcvoltage from a highly regulated, very low ripple power sup-ply. The leakage current is measured with a sensitive, high-ly filtered, dc pico-ammeter , which is fiber -optically cou-pled to the data acquisition system. The maximum voltageapplied is settable and does not exceed 1.5 times normalvoltage. The test is computer controlled and the test dura-tion is less than 10 minutes per cable. The equipment is suit-case-sized and easily transportable.

Metallic Shield or Neutral Condition AssessmentCopper shields or neutrals over polymeric cables may

suffer mechanical damage during installation, or over timefrom temperature cycling, particularly under cable clamps.The lead sheath on PILC may be subject to fracture andcreep, resulting in cracks and breaks. Corrosion may also bea serious form of shield damage in both copper and lead,even in fully jacketed cables. Breaks in the metallic shieldon polymeric cables may lead to points of high electricalstress, which may lead to local partial dischar ge and ulti-mate failure.

To determine the condition of the cable shield, an initialassessment is made with a dc resistance meter . If the resis-tance reading is high, Low Voltage Time DomainReflectometry (LV TDR) can be used to locate the pointsalong the cable where the neutral or shield is deteriorating.The LV TDR sends a low voltage, fast rise-time pulse downthe cable, and an oscilloscope in the unit shows reflectionswhen cable transmission characteristics change. Reflectionsshow cable splices as well as shield breaks. The LV TDRtest equipment is very small and easily transportable.

If the neutral or shield is damaged or corroded at manypoints along the length of the cable, a recommendation toreplace the entire cable may be made. If the corrosion is iso-lated to only a few points, these locations may be cut out andnew sections of cable spliced in place.

In the case of PILC cable, cracks or breaks in the leadsheath can lead to oil seeping away or water getting into theinsulation. If the phase conductors are not individuallyshielded, the lead acts as the shield on a PILC cable, andlead breaks may cause high electrical stress points. An LVTDR check of the cable may show reflections at very lar geholes in the lead. In duct installed PILC, many lead breaksoccur in manholes, at duct exits and around splices. A closevisual inspection may locate problems in the manholes. Tolocate small cracks or incipient problems a metallur gicalexamination may be necessary.

Cable Jacket TestsIn jacketed cables, the jacket may be compromised dur-

ing installation of the cables, or may age and crack, particu-larly when exposed to certain chemicals or soil conditions.



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evaluating certain call options that maybe exercised in the last week of theNOx season. Either options or invento-ry are effective in reducing the likeli-hood of shortage to less than 1% (zeroshortage), with about 2,000 tons ofinventory required for the same riskreduction as 1,000 call options.

Figure 5 shows mean compliancecost (analogous to heavy curve inFigure 3) for another hypotheticalexample. Costs vary from about $1 1million to $12 million over a range ofchoices. The minimum cost is achievedwith little or no inventory and the pur-chase of about 4,000 EA call options.As above, options and inventory pro-vide similar protection from expensiveshortages, so fewer options are needed when greater inven-tory is held, and vice versa. This creates the diagonal valleyin the figure.

Frank Selker is pr esident of Decision Management

Associates LLC, Portland, Oregon, and may be reached at503.244.9765, or by e-mail at [email protected].

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Electric PowerResearch Institute (EPRI), in Palo Alto California, and themodel was developed in collaboration with the EPRIProject Manager, Dr. Gordon Hester. Andrey Yastrebov atDecisioneering created the custom Decision Table toolneeded to track multiple forecasts during Decision TableCrystal Ball® runs.


ANALYZING


ET2_05 4/1/05 3:40 PM


sheet based, point form, simple crisismanagement documents are easier tounderstand, and can possibly also beused as actual “incident reports”.

Spreadsheet templates are easy totune and to update by their owners,particularly with volatile informationsuch as employee information, refer-ences to technology, and vendor con-tact information.

Time saving recommendation:Implementers should contemplate

purchasing from third parties with

expertise in IRP and DRP creation,spreadsheet-based templates, in orderto meet their NERC 1300 complianceneeds.

1303 Personnel and TrainingThird party consultants and out-

sourcers often have training expertisefor their service. Time saving recom-mendation: Consider single-sourcingboth training and the underlying ser-vice.

ConclusionNERC 1300, a much more specific

and documentation demanding versionof its predecessor NERC 1200, con-templates that power companies imple-ment compliance thoroughly , but notnecessarily by themselves. SCADAsecurity implementers should consider

collaborating with their corporate ITdepartments and their peers in otherpower companies, in order to reduceexpense and time to deploy . Theyshould also lever third-party expertise,which can provide template-orienteddocumentation and training-rich out-sourced security technology services.

Ron Lepofsky is the President and CEOof ERE Information Security , who areinformation security and financial dis-closure/privacy compliance auditors.ERE provides services to electrical dis-tribution companies, lar ge law firms,and to large publicly traded corpora-tions.Contact information: 905.764.3246email: [email protected]


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A damaged jacket is often a first indi-cation that further problems may beencountered. To test a cable jacket, thecable must be de-ener gized and theshield/neutral grounds must be discon-nected. A dc voltage check with amulti-meter between the floating shieldand ground will indicate if the jacket isintact. A potential of several volts onthe metallic shield indicates corrosionactivity and a compromised jacket islikely. Switching the multi-meter tothe micro-amp range and measuringthe short circuit current, can give anindication of the magnitude of corro-sion and jacket damage. If the jacketappears to be intact, the jacket insula-tion resistance should be checked witha Megger.

Cable Accessory TestingCable accessories, including

splices or joints, and terminations orelbows, are some of the most vulnera-ble parts of an under ground installa-tion. Failure mechanisms in acces-sories are varied, but one of the mostcommon causes of failure is improperinstallation. Often poor installationdoes not result in failure for manyyears. To determine the condition ofaccessories on-site, generally twosymptoms are assessed: elevated oper-ating temperature and presence of par-tial discharges.

Operating temperature is easilymeasured on an energized, current car-rying accessory with a hand-held,infrared detector. The load currentmust be recorded during the tempera-ture measurement and, obviously , thehigher the current, the higher the tem-perature will be. In general, the surfacetemperature on a splice or terminationshould be lower than the surface tem-perature on the in-coming cable. If not,an accessory problem is indicated.

Partial discharges (pd) in acces-sories can be located using a number ofoff-line or on-line techniques as givenunder “Partial Dischar ge Locators” in

Table 1. In addition, we have foundthat sonic or RF detectors are very use-ful in listening for pd in terminations oraccessible splices. Non-contact sonicprobes may find surface dischar geswhich indicate contamination that maylead to a breakdown. A contact sonicprobe or RF detector is required todetect internal dischar ges. Sincecables must be energized for pd testing,contact probes should be electricallyisolated from the person doing the test.

Local Environment andOperating Conditions

A good deal of information thatwill help determine condition of thecable system can be had with simpleobservations or questioning site per-sonnel during the testing. Always tryto find out and record:

• Current loading and duty cycle• Fault levels• Previous failures• Lightning levels and whether

arrestors are installed• Water table fluctuations• Workmanship of the installation• Surface contamination on acces-

sories

An environmental test that may behelpful is one to determine the chemi-cal composition of groundwater . Thismay be indicated particularly whensurface deterioration is seen on acces-

sories or jackets. One operating condi-tion that can seriously af fect cable lifeis elevated temperature. It may be pos-sible to monitor cable-operating tem-perature by installing thermocouples at“hot spots” along the cable. The envi-ronmental assessment should be usedin conjunction with the diagnostic teststo prioritize cable maintenance andreplacement.

ConclusionsA cable condition assessment pro-

gram should evaluate all parts of thecable system. Any test program mustbe designed to find serious cabledefects requiring immediate attention,and to assist in prioritizing future cablemaintenance and replacement. Theultimate purpose of a test program is toimprove system reliability and mini-mize long-term cost.

Vern Buchholz has over 25 years expe-rience in the electric industry . Hecame to Powertech Labs in 1984 fr omthe Transmission Engineering Gr oupat BC Hydro. He has been the Directorof the Electrical Technologies BusinessUnit at Powertech Labs since 1994.Vern’s projects include work on medi-um and high voltage cables and acces-sories, grounding apparatus, electricalconnectors, commercial electricalequipment and high impedance faultdetection.


CABLEContinued from Page 41

Corroded metal shield causing failure from outside in

J

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ET2_05 4/1/05 3:47 PM



Testing and Maintenance Handbook

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Circuit Breaker and Switchgear Handbook

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ADVERTISERS INDEX - Issue 2, 2005

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ADVERTISER PAGE CONTACT INFO ELECTRICITYFORUM WEB PAGEABB 25 www.abb.com www.electricityforum.com/products/abb_ca.htmAdwel International Ltd. 37 www.adwel.com www.electricityforum.com/products/adwel.htmAf White 13 www.afwhite.on.ca www.electricityforum.com/products/afwhite.htmAMRA 44 www.amra-intl.orgCable Master Inc. 53 www.cablemasterinc.com www.electricityforum.com/products/cablemas.htmCanada Power 50 www.canada-power.comCanadian Electricity Forum 38,48,54 www.electricityforum.com www.electricityforum.comThe Delta Group 53 www.delta.xfo.com www.electricityforum.com/products/deltagrp.htmFiso Technologies 30 www.fiso.com www.electricityforum.com/products/FISO_Technologies.htmlFlex-Core 54 www.flex-core.com www.electricityforum.com/products/flex.htmFLIR Systems Ltd. 22,31,53,56 www.flir.com www.electricityforum.com/products/flir.htmFluke Electronics 19 www.fluke.com www.electricityforum.com/products/fluke.htmFord Motor Company 5 www.ford.comGT Wood Company Ltd. 53 www.gtwood.com www.electricityforum.com/products/gtwood.htmHammond Power Solutions 27 www.hammondpowersolutions.comHubbell Power Systems 2,33,53 [email protected] www.electricityforum.com/products/hubbell.htmHunt Technologies Inc. 11 www.turtletech.com www.electricityforum.com/products/hunt.htmHigh Voltage Supply 17 www.highvoltagesupply.comICUEE 51 www.icuee.comIEEE/PES T&D 47 www.ieeet-d.orgIEEE/PES General meeting 49 www.ieeet-d.org Interfax USA 43 www.interfaxusa.comLineal 34 www.lineal.com Lizco Sales 53 www.lizcosales.com www.electricityforum.com/products/lizco.htmMagna Electric Corp. 52 www.magnaelectric.com www.electricityforum.com/products/magna.htmMikron 45 www.irimaging.comMorgan Schaffer 55 www.morganschaffer.com www.electricityforum.com/products/morgan.htmMTE Corporation 42 www.mtecorp.com www.electricityforum.com/products/mte.htmNynas Canada Inc. 7 www.nynas.comPioneer Transformer 15 www.pioneertransformer.com www.electricityforum.com/products/pioneer.htmRondar Inc 9 www.rondar.com www.electricityforum.com/products/rondar.htmTrench Limited 24 www.trenchgroup.com www.electricityforum.com/products/trench_limited.htmVelcon Filters Inc. 29 www.velcom.com www.electricityforum.com/products/velcon_filters.htmThe Voncorp Corporation 41 www.voncorp.com www.electricityforum.com/products/von.htm

ET2_05 4/1/05 3:47 PM

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the spring transformer report - electric today · 300hp triton • 3-valve 5.4l triton v-8 • 300...

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