Better Measurement for a More Complex Grid

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

As a professional involved in electricity delivery, the T&D World Podcast and tdworld.com is your definitive source for breaking news, industry updates, and more. We've got you covered from transmission to distribution and everything that affects the power grid. And now, on to today's episode.

Nikki Chandler (0:19)

Welcome to the T&D World Live Podcast. I'm Nikki Chandler, I'm Editorial Director at T&D World here. And as you all know, accurate measurement has always been a critical part of operating the grid. But today's distribution systems are changing rapidly. And with the growth of distributed energy resources, electrification, and bi-directional power flow, utilities really need more visibility into what's happening across the system.

And that includes power quality, system performance, and emerging disturbances.

And in this episode, which is sponsored by G&W Electric, we're going to take a closer look at the evolution of sensing technologies and what they mean for grid monitoring and modernization. And I'm excited about this topic. I think it's a great topic for our audience. And joining me is David Carera, Global Product Line Manager for sensors at G&W Electric. Welcome, David. Could you just start out by telling us a little bit about yourself, about your background?

David Carera (1:22)

Yeah, sure. First of all, thanks for having me here. It's a pleasure. As you said, the Global Sensor Product Line Manager at G&W Electric. I'm in this business since more or less 20 years, say in the electrical industry. I've been in many roles, started in R&D, product management, and then I ended up in the portfolio leadership.

I work a little bit across the whole work. Spent a few years in Europe, Asia, and now I live in US.

So I cover, let's say, the IEC world and the IEEE as well. What is very interesting about the role is that sensors are not standalone products. Those goes into other platforms. So I'm working a lot together with my colleagues in finding new use cases and enabling new use cases for them, like the recent acquisition we had with SafeGrid. So how we are combining our sensors, products together with the platforms, and which problems are we going to solve for our customers. So my focus is really offering solutions to measure current voltage, but even enabling use cases, new use cases.

Nikki Chandler (2:36)

Yeah, that was really neat for me to see that acquisition because we met the SafeGrid reps few years ago. It hasn't been too long. It doesn't seem like at T&D World Live, when they kind of were first coming into the market. So that's just really exciting for them, and I'm sure for you. And then of course, we saw that at the IEEE PES this last year. Yeah, the electric grid has changed significantly, and it's changing now, as we all know.

David, can you tell us, what do you think, how have trends such as distributed energy resources, electrification, and then that bidirectional power flow that I mentioned, how has all that changed, what grid operators really need to measure today?

David Carera (3:20)

Yeah, and it goes back even, let's say, to how the new technologies works versus the traditional one.

So in the past, at the grid level, we were using traditional instrument transformers.

Those were, let's say, pretty good in doing, let's say, in enabling standard protection function. So no need to measure any kind of, let's say, high frequency or any disturbances into the grid. So very stable products, very accurate, but not great from, let's say, the type of data that you can get out of the grid. So the grid is changing a lot, as you said. So there are more data to be analyzed, different data, and depending on the quality of data that you can get, there might be differences in the way you are managing the grid. So it's important the quality of the data that you are getting. So the grid is changing a lot. The biggest change is the fact that it's not anymore one direction only when it comes to the energy flow, and it's bidirectional. So we have DRs, e-vehicles. So the flow of the energy is changing a lot, and very fast in some cases. Plus, there's the whole piece of the data centers and the AI that is playing a big role when it comes to disturbances that we are injecting into the grid. So, and here is the point. So how the traditional instrument transformers works with the grid changing? Not great, and that's why, as G&W, we decided to adapt new technologies and not just the traditional one, to respond in a proper way to these changes in the grid.

Nikki Chandler (5:18)

Yeah, I mean, and that really does bring me to my next question. Maybe you get a little bit more specific about it if you can, but traditional instrument transformers really have served the industry well for decades.