Siemens Develops a New Monitoring System for Medium-Voltage Switchgear

This news is from arcweb.com

With Assetguard MVC, Siemens has developed a new monitoring system for circuit-breakers in medium-voltage switchgear. The system monitors, in particular, the operability of the medium-voltage switchgear, which is often exposed to harsh ambient conditions and yet rarely trips. Over the years, the mechanical components can become dirty and fail to work in the worst case scenario. The monitoring system checks the reliability of the triggering system, the effectiveness of the closed circuit, and the condition of the primary contacts. If the measured values do not match the preset values, the system signals the need for the maintenance of a component, such as a switch or the drive. This allows more efficient planning of maintenance routes and possible component replacement, making the switchgear more reliable and preventing the expense of unscheduled intervention.

To simplify the installation and configuration of the monitoring system, all functional components – power supply, data acquisition system and data memory, optical fiber communication system and the web server for data visualization – are designed as a switchgear cabinet slide-in module and accommodated in a 19-inch housing. The integrated data memory also records measured data before the actual switching operation, analyzes the measurement curves and compares characteristic points with the preconfigured limit values. If these limit values are exceeded, the system sends an alarm to the control center, where any maintenance activities that may be necessary are initiated immediately.

One slide-in module can monitor six circuit-breakers. Each add-on module ensures that up to 54 additional circuit breakers can be checked.

Assetguard MVC can be integrated as a standalone component in SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) and ISCM (Integrated Substation Condition Monitoring) systems. The devices can thus be combined with other monitoring systems, which also facilitates user-specific diagnoses using third-party equipment. As a monitoring system for medium-voltage switchgear, Assetguard MVC also rounds out Siemens' monitoring systems for high-voltage switchgear (Assetguard PDM/Assetguard GDM/Assetguard CBM) and for transformers (Assetguard TXM).