Doble Engineering Company, a leader in power grid diagnostic solutions and subsidiary of ESCO Technologies Inc. has announced its collaboration with SynchroGrid, an innovative power engineering consulting company specializing in system protection.
The companies have created a joint solution for efficiently managing power system relay protection settings and ensuring compliance with NERC PRC-027-1.
The NERC PRC-027-1 standard will be enforceable for North American organizations in 2021.
SynchroGrid’s SARA (Setting Automation Relay Assistant) and Doble PowerBase™ (PowerBase) are now connectable through an application programming interface (API), giving utilities an automated, end-to-end workflow for developing, reviewing and managing relay settings, as well as performing regular wide-area coordination studies. The system integration reduces time spent on settings calculations, eliminates errors from copying and pasting data points, and makes it easier for engineers to quickly identify and address non-compliant settings.
SARA retrieves relay settings data directly from PowerBase and communicates with short-circuit models such as ASPEN OneLiner™ or PSS®CAPE to automatically calculate faults, flagging any settings that should be changed to meet compliance standards. Engineers can easily accept relay settings and store them in PowerBase, issuing the new settings out into the field, and creating user-friendly, comprehensive reports to demonstrate regulatory compliance.
SynchroGrid also independently provides consulting solutions for PRC-027-1.
“SynchroGrid shares our commitment to continually make utility teams’ lives easier and help the industry ensure the reliable, safe and secure flow of power. Our combined expertise and technology will enable global power and utility teams to elevate their performance in every aspect of protection settings management,” said Bryan Gwyn, senior director of solutions at Doble Engineering Company. “Whether teams need support with testing, settings calculations, or navigating compliance standards, our new solution is designed to be more than two technologies, but an end-to-end service to help clients excel.”
While SynchroGrid and Doble have teamed up to provide integrated software solutions for NERC compliance, SynchroGrid also provides consulting solutions for PRC-027-1. SynchroGrid has helped numerous utilities develop an established workflow from relay setting development to wide-area coordination, which is what utilities urgently need.
The collaboration strengthens this consulting capability by bringing Doble’s extensive protection testing, development, knowledge and experience to the team.
