January 4, 2017

As simple as a smartphone

New test technologies respond to increasing demands Reduce costs, switch to renewable energy sources, create de-centrally supplied grids, maintain high grid quality – we know...

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New test technologies respond to increasing demands

Reduce costs, switch to renewable energy sources, create de-centrally supplied grids, maintain high grid quality – we know that the demands made on energy supply companies and the accompanying efficiency pressures are increasing all the time. The result: human resources must be utilised extremely rationally and flexibly. This also applies for measurement and control technology, where many companies now employ all-rounders instead of specialised test engineers.

This new type of measurement technician, who can for example be found in medium-voltage substations, looks after all the important assets such as transformers, power converters, voltage converters, circuit breakers, protection equipment, primary and secondary feeds, all ground connections etc. The market offers a whole arsenal of highly developed products for each of these areas. Each one on its own is tailored for the specialised test engineer and is of a highly complex construction.

They are, however, often too complicated for universally acting measurement technicians. This is where a new product from measurement and test technology manufacturer, Megger, comes in: the multi-function test unit for power transformers and substations – TRAX – is easy to understand and to control using apps. When the app is called up for a specific test, the unit is pre-set to a suitable configuration and the test sequence is then self-explanatory. There is also a great number of measures to guarantee safety during testing (emergency stop, key switch, incorporation into external safety circuits or ground monitoring), and the recording of measurements with the TRAX unit has also been made easy for the user. If required, a specialised test engineer also has access to an expert mode with “manual controls” within the app, and therefore, has complete control over any desired test construction or any generator setting, for selecting measuring channels or for illustrating measurement results. It is not only the specialist user who will appreciate the fact that the multi-functional test unit now only requires one operating software instead of having to learn many different operating philosophies for different units. Software updates will, therefore, also be much simpler, as only one system will have to be updated in the future.

Working with TRAX

The tester selects their measuring instrument, such as the transformer ratio measurement via the app. All necessary channels become active immediately and light up in red.

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