Electric utilities have long relied on physical inspections and scheduled maintenance programs when managing grid infrastructure.
However, the periodic nature of these approaches allows potential faults to go undetected, sometimes for months at a time. This increases the likelihood of a catastrophic equipment failure that results in an outage and requires an emergency repair.
Touchless™ Monitoring solutions leverage visual & thermal sensors to enable continuous, 24/7 monitoring of high-value and critical substation assets. With greater situational awareness, utilities can quickly detect faults, diagnose the cause, and prioritize repairs based on the overall health and performance of the asset.
But the sensors themselves are just one part of the larger solution. To get the most out of their investment, utilities should also deploy a substation-hardened digital video server.
What Is a Digital Video Server?
A digital video server (DVS) acts as the centerpiece of a continuous monitoring solution. It is a standalone unit that is deployed at the network edge to connect the visual & thermal sensors, and process the data and video.
The specialized system is designed to store, manage, and analyze the data and video that is collected from the thermal and visual sensors. It provides the computing, and connectivity capabilities needed for automated monitoring, making it ideally suited to applications with remote sites that are managed from a central location. The edge-processing increases efficiency by reducing the network bandwidth requirements and improving the system reliability.
The Benefits of the DVS3000 Substation Hardened Digital Video Server
The DVS3000 Substation Hardened Digital Video Server builds on the capabilities of previous solutions from Systems With Intelligence while improving the experience for the user.
The DVS3000 can connect to up to 16 visual & thermal sensors deployed throughout the facility. Digital I/O interfaces also allow for the integration of other sensors or physical security devices such as lights, alarms, or speakers.
The substation-hardened solution has been designed and built to withstand the harsh environments found in electric utility applications. The DVS3000 is rated to withstand high levels of EMI, ESD, voltage surges and interrupts and has a wide operating temperature range.
The powerful video management software incorporates a suite of sophisticated video and data analytics that enable automated monitoring. The software analyzes the data, determines if a threshold has been exceeded, and automatically sends an alarm and a video image to the operator.
The DVS3000 takes a modular approach to power and memory. The removable power supply and hard drive make it easy to conduct field repairs and eliminate the need for time-consuming factory repairs. The new model also features improved processing power and the ability to add artificial intelligence for deeper data analysis capabilities.
Finally, flexible power and networking make the DVS3000 easy to install in a standard 19” rack, while integration with SCADA and asset management applications ensures easy access to the data and video.
How Utilities Can Leverage the DVS3000
The DVS3000 is a flexible and versatile solution that can be used across a variety of applications and deployment scenarios. One or more servers can be deployed depending on the size of the facility and the number of sensors required to monitor the site.
With the DVS3000 based system, continuous monitoring allows utilities to transition away from costly physical and time based inspections and adopt a Condition-Based Maintenance strategy. The system automatically detects temperature anomalies that could indicate a potential fault, allowing the Operations & Maintenance team to prioritize a response and dispatch a crew before a failure occurs.
The TouchlessTM system allows operators to perform remote inspections to verify the position of overhead switches, check for leaks, intrusions and the conditions of the site and assets. The visual sensors reduce the need for truck rolls to perform on-site inspections , improving safety, reliability and reducing costs.
Finally, the DVS3000 can store up to two terabytes of local video archiving, allowing for over 30 days of local storage. In case of an incident, the utility can look back at the video and determine the cause and conditions leading up to the failure.
In each of these scenarios, the processing happens locally on the server before any data is transmitted. This distributed approach helps to overcome the network bandwidth reliability limitations that can often be an issue when connecting to remote sites.
Enabling Touchless™ Monitoring for Electric Utilities
The DVS3000 Digital Video Server plays an important role in enabling a Touchless™ Monitoring solution. The powerful platform records and analyzes data from multiple sensors and automatically alerts the Operations & Maintenance team to potential faults.
With continuous coverage of high-value and critical assets, utilities can reduce the cost of operations and maintenance, improve grid reliability, and minimize the need for on-site physical inspections.