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PROTECTION, MONITORING & CONTROL F or many people liv- ing in Britain, power cuts are nothing more than an oc- casional annoyance, but as events last month in South America proved, they are no laughing matter. In June, a massive blackout le• almost 50 million people without electricity in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay for a day following what the Argentine president, Mauricio Macri called an "unprec - edented" failure in the countries' power grid. While the cause of the outage is still being investigated, it serves as a timely reminder that power cut prevention and protection remains a key priority for grid managers the world over. According to Ofgem, the num - ber of power cuts across Britain has reduced by 11 per cent since the beginning of RIIO in 2013 and the duration of power cuts has reduced by nine per cent. But as Manchester University's professor of electrical power equip - ment and networks, Paul Jarman tells Network there is "much to be said for ensuring the electrical system is intrinsically robust". The Professor adds that while distributed generation and grid- scale storage offer "interesting opportunities" for reducing the reliance on the physical grid, it will continue to be necessary to connect interconnectors, assets, railways and cities. "So•ware in protection and control is absolutely critical in preventing power cuts, and the industry is used to controlling reliability and security issues this way," he adds. "This will get more complex as more small generators and demand come under so•ware control and potentially demand such as vehicle charging will require co-ordination in order to make efficient use of assets. "Research has a big part to play in understanding interactions and there is no reason why careful design cannot result in a more re - silient system even as the situation gets more complex," he adds. "Artificial intelligence (AI) certainly has a place in identifying early signs of equipment failure or system issues, but in my view it should be treated as an aide, rather than a substitute, for well trained and experienced staff." UK Power Networks and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) are exploring the benefits of using AI and have developed a system called "Syn - aps", which allows engineers to use a library of "big data" to predict potential faults before they occur. The technology works by analysing the waveforms of the electricity voltage 100,000 times per second, and identifying when any - thing slightly unusual is happening in the cables. It is currently being trialled on UK Power Networks and SSEN's networks and, if successful, could be installed across electricity net - works from 2020. "There is a lot of talk about AI and machine learning, but this is an example of it being put to a really practical use, in a way that's going to benefit our customers by helping us to run an even more reli - able network at lower cost," says UK Power Networks' innovation engineer, Rona Mitchell. While Western Power Distribu - tion (WPD) has been using the ALVIN (Automatic-Low Voltage Intelligent Network), which was developed by EA Technology, to identify faults and avoid power outages. The device records the voltage and current waveforms associated with a collection of brief faults, which disappear before a fuse operates. The ALVIN fits in a standard low voltage holder and which, on detec - tion of a fault, will break the circuit Keeping power cuts to a minimum As recent events in South America have proven, power cuts can cause widespread disruption, even if they only last a few hours. Network talked to operators in the UK to find out how they are building a more resilient grid and tackling the issue. NETWORK / 20 / JULY/AUGUST 2019 and disconnect supplies, wait for approximately 30 seconds, then reclose and reconnect the circuit. "In early 2018 we received re - ports of flickering lights in Alrewas in the Stoke distribution patch," says engineering specialist, David Phillips. "Power quality devices were fit- ted but no meaningful cause for the disturbance was found. The issue continued for several months. Dur- ing a visit to EA Technology my col- league and I discussed the matter and we decided to use the ALVIN as an experiment to investigate the Steve Weddell, WPD's Stoke plant team manager, holding the ALVIN system.