US DOE selects companies to develop transformer sensor technology

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) has selected three companies to develop, prototype, and demonstrate TRANSENSOR, a low-cost optically based smart monitoring system.


PARC, Con Edison and General Electric will cooperate to develop and test TRANSENSOR (Transformer Real-time Assessment INtelligent System with Embedded Network of Sensors and Optical Readout), which will increase reliability and safety by providing real time asset health.

"It's been predicted that the smart grid sensor market will reach $39 billion by 2019," said Ajay Raghavan, PARC research area manager and principal investigator leading the effort. "We are working on innovative low-cost embedded fiber-optic sensors that can reliably monitor conditions in a broad variety of harsh environments, including those seen in smart grids, so that we can understand the real-time state of critical systems."

Con Edison personnel will lead the final field demonstration of TRANSENSOR.

GE personnel will play a support role in the testing for qualifying TRANSENSOR on its Safe-NET network transformers leading to the planned field demonstration with Con Edison.

Source: Printed Electronics