The need for smarter grid technologies

Dogged by decades of under-investment, grid operators are turning to smarter grid-enhancing technologies to predict potential failures before they happen, improve system reliability, and save on costs. Advanced AI analytics and partial discharge monitoring are emerging as key elements of the toolbox for ageing grid assets. Javier Ortego, director of BlueBox Technology at Ampacimon, writes: 

Like many of the world’s regions, the electricity grids of the Middle East and North Africa are broadly characterised by a lack of investment that has been responsible for a declining asset base over many years.

This has left the ageing infrastructure poorly equipped and struggling to deal with new challenges such as the growing electrification of industry and a shift to a more distributed generation architecture.

There is an evident need to respond to this situation with large-scale investment in new grid infrastructure - replacing conductors and transformers and building new lines to reinforce the grid for example.

However, according to a recent IEA report, Building the Future Transmission Grid: Strategies to Navigate Supply Chain Challenges, global grid expansion is struggling to keep pace with surging demand as supply chain bottlenecks have seen procurement lead times and costs for essential parts like transformers and cables nearly double since 2021.

The IEA notes that while permitting remains the primary cause of delays in transmission projects, supply chain issues have emerged as a critical issue. An IEA survey on the issue found that procurement now takes two to three years for cables and up to four years for large power transformers.

Meanwhile, real terms cable costs have nearly doubled since 2019 while transformer prices have increased by around 75%.

Despite these challenges though, there are alternative strategies available.

The use of smarter grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) offers a route to reinforce the asset base without the need for wholesale replacement.

GETs can thus reduce the need for capital investment while still improving system reliability and making the existing infrastructure far better equipped to cope with evolving demands.

The PD problem

One of the tools available to improve grid reliability without the need for gross capital expenditure is the detection of partial discharge events, coupled with a strategy of early intervention.

Partial discharge (PD) is caused by the breakdown of electrical insulation that results in a partial short circuit between conductors.

Partial discharge can take place in any insulating medium with solid, liquid or gaseous types all potentially affected, although such events are often initiated in a gas void, such as gaps in solid epoxy insulation or bubbles in transformer oil.

While the partial discharge does not completely bridge the electrical gap it can nonetheless result in significant damage.

When a partial discharge occurs over a long period, for example, it can cause a further breakdown in the insulating properties of the medium and eventually a complete failure.

Inevitably, such failures result in a full short circuit and a sudden trip on any circuit affected.

Where this occurs, such events are always costly for supply companies and consumers.

Furthermore, replacing the failed elements can clearly be very expensive and it may take a long time to even secure replacement parts and effect a repair of the affected assets.

Monitoring the incidence of partial discharge thus not only allows potential failures to be addressed well ahead of time to avoid faults before they happen, but by deploying smart technologies partial discharge monitoring coupled with sophisticated analysis can also result in a predictive maintenance regime being implemented.

This is the first part of Ortego's op-ed. Click here to read the second part.