Skoltech is an international graduate research-focused university that was founded by the group of world-renowned scientists in 2011. Skoltech's curriculum focuses on technology and innovation, offering Master's programs in 11 technological disciplines. Students receive rigorous theoretical and practical training, design their own research projects, participate in internships and gain entrepreneurial skills in English. The faculty is comprised of current researchers with international accreditation and achievements.

Skoltech team brings new solution to Russian power grid market

A Skoltech Energy team has developed a solution for inspecting and displaying the status of overhead power line insulators.

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“Our solution leverages sensor technology and AI,” Dmitry Titov, associate professor at Skoltech Energy and founder of the MIG startup, comments. “We place our insulator status display (ISD) device on the suspension of an insulator located near a major contamination source to measure leakage currents using stationary sensors and assess the contamination degree, annual energy losses, and probability of flashovers.”

Designed as a software and hardware suite on a DMS platform with a CIM infrastructure database, the solution boasts advanced analytics tools and data import from other types of sensors and external servers, such as weather reports; as well as data export to SCADA via allowed protocols.

The device has successfully passed full-scale tests in the Moscow and Volgograd Regions and Dagestan and is currently being field-tested in the Tula Region and on the MKAD Ring Road in Moscow.

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The team did not stop at a solution for individual insulators and joined the project “A Technology for Risk-Based Management of Power Line Insulation.”

“We suggest assessing the condition of both individual insulators and the entire insulation, including its sensorless parts,” Dmitry continues. “We use leakage current measurements to check how powerful the contamination source is and then estimate the probability of flashovers on sensorless insulators. The client software displays the measurements and uploads a report with recommendations. Our tool provides risk-based insulation management by taking account of the risks and quantitatively ranking the suspensions according to the probability of flashovers or the amount of losses.”

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The key benefit of the technology is that it helps manage insulation operation risks by allowing companies to either invest more effectively into new insulation or postpone power line upgrading. Along with reducing unserved energy, losses and failures due to flashovers, the technology helps ensure more efficient insulator replacement and save 1.65 billion rubles per year on a nationwide scale.

In October, the project made it to the finals of Energoproryv, a high-profile competition in the Russian power industry, which aims to select innovative solutions based on Russian technologies and hardware for faster import substitution and to create an environment conducive to the modernization and innovative development of the Russian power grid complex. Out of 480 applicants from Russian technology companies, only 17 teams reached the finals.

Skoltech’s project attracted mentors from PJSC Rosseti’s Moscow Region branch and head office. Right now, the team, supported by mentors, is drawing up a roadmap that it will present at the offline final selection in November.

The project consortium includes the Global Insulator Group, which manufactures 11% of the world’s insulators, investor and owner of the ISD technology; Skoltech, which contributes its R&D expertise; sensor manufacturer MIG; and the Expert Center, responsible for expert sales.

 

Contact information:
Skoltech Communications
+7 (495) 280 14 81

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