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Continues on next page >> Editor's note: Brett Sargent of LumaSense Technologies is an industry veteran who recently spent time at two sessions sponsored by CIGRE, the Paris-based international council on large electric systems. One session was in Paris, the other in Montreal. When he told me he had noticed some important new themes there, I asked him to share his insights with SGN readers. Please use the comment form at the bottom of the page to agree or disagree. -- Jesse Berst
By Brett Sargent
1. The action is in the middle
In the early days of grid modernization, the general focus was on end points – the actual side of the customer premise. Since those early days, the smart grid has evolved from Advanced Meter Reading (AMR) and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI).
Of course, we now realize that the smart grid is no longer just the end point. Much occurs between generation and the end point. And the industry is slowly but surely looking at the middle and figuring out how to make it smarter. This is a great improvement, since such a focus had largely been lacking in developed countries where smart grid was viewed as simply the deployment of smart meters. Asian utilities, for example, tended to have a better approach on the actual grid versus the end point. Now it appears that the industry at large is beginning to get on the same page.
2. The slowdown in big deployments increases the need for asset management
On the other hand, it was disappointing to see that new, major, global investments appear concentrated in China and India instead of the Americas, Europe, Middle East or other parts of Asia. This is a reflection of the global economic situation. However, major projects are needed in North America and Western Europe where aging infrastructure needs to be replaced. With the average age of a power transformer in developed countries now over 40 years old, the need to extend these assets longer and longer until more budgetary resources become available is much greater.
But upgrade projects are often put on hold due to the global economic downturn, with many companies using a “wait and see” approach since an infrastructure already exists in some capacity. With the aging infrastructure in developed countries and electrical demand growing, though, investment is needed in the form of either new projects or asset management and condition-based maintenance (CBM). If money is not being spent on the former, it must be spent on the latter.
Page 2: Why extending asset life is essential >>
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