Team effort helps utilities 'see' details on grid health
A combination of technologies from two companies is aimed at helping utilities get detailed information about grid performance that can help keep energy systems stable and reliable.
Tollgrade Communications has developed a new application that works with smart-grid firm Echelon’s Control Operating System (COS) to provide analytics-based insights into the grid designed to help utilities prevent power outages and reduce operating expenses through better asset management. The application, LightHouse, runs within the COS software platform on Echelon’s Edge Control Node (ECN).
“Though our collaboration with Tollgrade, utilities can now benefit from the kind of innovative, smart energy applications we had in mind when we developed Echelon’s COS,” said Ron Sege, president and CEO of Echelon. “This application leverages the power of Echelon’s energy control networking platform to move the grid beyond centralized reading of meters to a truly open, intelligent and distributed system that can monitor and react to an increasingly dynamic and demanding environment.”
The joint solution enables Echelon’s ECN to report critical data and analytics points from Tollgrade’s LightHouse medium-voltage sensors deployed on the grid. That data can then be analyzed to provide detailed information on electrical loads, identify outage events and pinpoint fault locations.
