Students benefit from new research equipment

Various digitization technologies are also being successfully tested in the field of measuring electrical parameters in distribution and transmission grids and are becoming increasingly popular among grid operators.

These technologies include so-called digital interfaces, which are designed to convert measured quantities into a digital data stream in the immediate vicinity of medium- and high-voltage installations and distribute this data to all relevant measurement, protection, and monitoring devices.

The advantage of these interfaces lies in reduced wiring requirements combined with significantly greater flexibility in data distribution, which also significantly expands the scope of application for network monitoring algorithms.

In this context, it also makes sense to employ innovative methods for measuring electrical quantities. One such method is known as non-conventional current transformers. These convert high voltages and large currents into small signals and can be recorded virtually directly via digital interfaces and distributed throughout the system. Compared to conventional transformers, these are material- and space-efficient as well as robust. From a metrological perspective, they offer a wide range and a linear conversion characteristic across a broad measurement range.

Given that these technologies are becoming increasingly important and will represent the state of the art in electrical power grids in the near future, it is important to incorporate these modern technologies into the educational curriculum of power engineering programs.

Thanks to the collaboration between the Protection and Control Engineering Division of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Siemens AG Smart Infrastructure, it was possible to acquire a hardware emulator for non-conventional converters developed by Siemens, thereby offering this technology to the university’s students as additional laboratory equipment for experiments and research. In practice, the emulator is used not only for testing purposes but also during the commissioning of high-voltage systems. The emulator was handed over on February 27, 2023, by Federico Canas (Siemens). Mr. Canas—who has worked for many years as a Senior Key Expert and Senior Hardware Developer at Siemens AG—is involved in the development of modules for non-conventional current and voltage transformers and is the developer of this emulator.

During his visit, he not only commissioned the emulator with a digital interface but also explained key features of this new technology and its impact on conventional protection and monitoring algorithms.

Many thanks to Siemens and Federico Canas for their support and the numerous discussions! This enables Zittau University of Applied Sciences to not only expand its teaching units but also identify new areas of research.