The ambitious but necessary gas emission reduction goals set by the European Commission require significant investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency and electrical grid infrastructure. Nowadays, electrical utilities need to upgrade the level of monitoring and automation of distribution grids in order to cope with the unpredictability of renewable energies and the stringent power-quality requirements imposed by regulators. For example, phenomena like overloads and overvoltages are becoming more frequent due to renewable generation, stressing grid components and threatening grid efficiency and reliability; in addition to this, regulatory authorities require to decrease the duration of power outages in order to improve grid reliability indexes.
Existing smart grid solutions are characterized by several common drawbacks: they need a multitude of devices to perform each task, require both current and voltage sensors to get a view of the grid status (voltage sensors are expensive and cumbersome to deploy), and lack accurate fault location.
In order to address these challenges and overcome the above mentioned drawbacks, Zaphiro Technologies has developed an innovative solution for the smart management of electrical distribution grids called SynchroGuard. To increase grid efficiency and reliability, SynchroGuard provides real-time visibility of the grid status, enables safe integration of renewable energies, and quickly reacts to electrical faults. It consists of distributed sensing and a central grid controller that collects all the measurements and performs real-time grid monitoring, automatic control of renewable energy generators, and smart fault management. The main novelty of Zaphiro’s approach is the use of synchrophasors, that are very frequent and synchronized measurements of voltage and electric current, enabling accurate fault location and simple installation. Zaphiro’s team has exploited its unique expertise in smart grids to rethink the synchrophasor’s concept, used only in niche application in transmission grids, for distribution grid management.
