“BDVB Oil Stick” – Key enabling technology for online monitoring of crucial electric grid infrastructure. Striving for global market leadership

Project Information

BDVB Oil-Stick

Grant agreement ID: 826956

DOI

10.3030/826956

Project closed

EC signature date 9 August 2018

Start date 1 September 2018

End date 28 February 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

PASSERRO GMBH
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BDVB Oil-Stick (“BDVB Oil Stick” – Key enabling technology for online monitoring of crucial electric grid infrastructure. Striving for global market leadership)

Reporting period: 2018-09-01 to 2019-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Breakdown-Voltage-Basic Oil-Stick (BDVB) enables the online determination of the breakdown voltage of transformer oil. This allows valid conclusions to be drawn about the load capacity of the transformer and its remaining service life. The measurement data from the oil stick can be used to determine the optimum time for the next maintenance and significantly reduce operating costs and risks. Compared to existing solutions, the BDVB has unique selling points: it measures more accurately, every second, with considerably less effort and is self-calibrating due to its measuring principle. The sensor is compact. Compared to existing methods, time-consuming sampling and oil analysis in the laboratory, the use of auxiliary materials or annual calibrations can be reduced. The Oil-Stick has a large potential of further variants which, integrated in a Condition-Monitoring-System (CMS), enable a complete transformer monitoring and asset management. In the transformation of the energy system (energy turnaround), the BDVB enables optimal utilization of the transformers as core elements for controlling the power grids on a global level.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

"The validation of the business model carried out as part of the EU-funded ""H2020 SME-Instrument Phase 1 Project BDVB-Oilstick"" identified market segments in the field of service providers and in particular in oil regeneration. Suppliers of condition monitoring and monitoring systems for transformers were included as a further segment."

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Within the scope of customer interviews, it became apparent that the requirements generally go beyond the offered BDV measurement and require further technical developments. From this, a technological development roadmap up to 2020 was drawn up. The development of identified market segments is already possible with the fully developed BDVB-OilStick and should start with the Minimal Viable Products (MVP) approach. Capital - ideally generated by the company itself - is required especially for the start-up phase in order to build up the company and implement the market-oriented technical developments required by the customer. The build-up of personnel and own revenues enables the acquisition of public subsidies for the necessary risky R&D requirements. Experience has shown that this requires mini-mal sales of approx. EUR 0.5 - 1 million and at least 5-8 full-time equivalent employees.

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