Grid Talk: Looking Beyond the Transformer

Monitoring distribution transformers has benefits on the customer facing side and on the upstream grid side.

The grid is so carved up today with electric vehicle plugins, with rooftop solar, with distributed energy resources that the utilities have lost sight of what their true load curve is. Now monitoring the asset itself, allows them to see the impact of electric vehicles and rooftop solar. When you buy an electric vehicle, it has a huge new load on the grid that the transformer has to support. But you don't have to register that with the utility. They are unaware you've done so. You're seeing the impact of electric vehicle plug in.

Now upstream from the grid, from the distribution transformer. Now you see fault currents measuring fault currents tells the utility where the fault occurred, especially for underground services. So, they can now pinpoint where to repair a fault upstream from the transformer, as well as see the impact on the customer facing side downstream from the transformer. You only get that if you monitor the transformer itself.