Energized broken conductors are a nightmare scenario for power systems engineers. Whilst they represent a small percentage of faults on the distribution network, their safety consequences are significant. Unlike phase to earth or line clash faults, broken conductors, particularly floating ones, can bring high voltage lines into close proximity of the general public.

Reliability of the electricity distribution network is a common goal for electrical engineers. Less outages means more power and more productivity – it’s the building block of modern civilisation and enterprise. And while the goal of achieving higher reliability is not new, the context has changed greatly in recent years.

Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and Synchrophasor data acquisition represent promising options for rapid, safe and reliable integration and control of renewable energy to the electricity distribution grid. A project to evaluate the benefits of deploying PMU data has been under sponsorship from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency in partnership with NOJA Power, Electricity Utilities and Universities in Australia. The PMU functionality was integrated into NOJA Power Recloser Controllers and deployed at 100 sites throughout Australia. This article explores the technical findings of this first grid scale deployment, demonstrating the value and justification for further adoption of this technology.

Modbus is one of the oldest and most beloved of communications protocols for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). Developed in 1979 by Modicon, Modbus was originally designed for Programmable Logic Controllers.

NOJA Power have launched their new Recloser Controller firmware version 1.26.0.0, providing a suite of upgraded functionality available to all users of the RC10 and RC15 Recloser Controller platforms.