SBIR-STTR Award

Investment in the U.S. power grid infrastructure has not kept pace with increased energy demands, and consequently, existing power lines must operate close to conservative safety limits. The development of advanced instrumentation could simultaneously improve efficiency and maintain reliability. Next generation sensors must be low-cost to allow widespread deployment while providing critical power line parameter measurements to utility operators in real-time. This project will develop a modular, potential-powered voltage monitor as the foundation of a low-cost sensor platform that can be readily scaled for deployment on power lines over the full range of distribution and transmission voltages. Phase I will design the modular impedance building block, which is the critical enabling technology for the modular intelligent suspension insulator platform. A laboratory scale facility will be set up to fabricate hydrophobic cycloaliphatic epoxy samples for dielectric testing using a single-step casting process. The dielectric and mechanical designs for the building block will be optimized using the sample test results. Subsections of the final design will be fabricated for verification testing and thermal cycling.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
The sensor platform should have a wide range of possible applications for the electric utility industry. The modular intelligent insulator can provide "power on the tower" at low cost to support monitors and telemetry for control and metering of electric power, broadband and cellular communications, and sensors for homeland security applications. Furthermore, the device can replace old or damaged conventional instrument transformers with a low cost, lightweight, environmentally friendly voltage measurement technology that provides high, industry-specified accuracy