ELE Times: The Digital World has brought many benefits but also introduces challenges. What are the challenges of the protection and control system?
Daniel Lai: Talking about Smart substation and control system, we can categories them into four elements. First one is Performance, Reliability, Availability and Manageability. The challenge is how to combine listed four elements into computer. For example in order to achieve reliability we must use IEC 61850-3 compliant fanless computers. In order to achieve this vertical there must be fanless computer. For achieving Performance vertical, challenge is how to combine high performance with fanless computers.
ELE Times: What does it take to upgrade the older system and how Moxa is contributing towards it?
Daniel Lai: Moxa design computers, especially for power vertical market uses MOXA patent for achieving technologies. Moxa can achieve fanless and wide working operating temperature from -40 to 70 degree centigrade which comply to IEC 61850-3 requirement and high performance can be achieved by using Core i7 processor in fanless ready computer.
ELE Times: What are the various Maintenance strategy that has to be taken into account considering technical and economic aspects?
Daniel Lai: Typically we have three types of maintenance, the first one is Reactive maintenance and this concept fails. Most of traditional substation rely on such maintenance which breakdown or run to fail. Next we move to Preventive maintenance which is time maintenance. They are scheduled at predetermined time interval like half- yearly or yearly but it is not enough so trend is to introduce Predictive Maintenance into the entire substation.
ELE Times: What is Predictive Maintenance?
Daniel Lai: Predictive maintenance techniques are designed to help determine the condition of in-service equipment in order to predict when maintenance should be performed. Predictive maintenance is condition based maintenance. It is based on periodic monitoring of the equipment and observing un-healthy event that occur over the time. This will benefit operator or maintenance engineer to schedule maintenance activity at the time they like.
ELE Times: What are the advantages of Predictive maintenance over conventional Maintenance?
Daniel Lai: The main promise of predictive maintenance is to allow convenient scheduling of corrective maintenance, and to prevent unexpected equipment failures. The key is “the right information in the right time”. By knowing which equipment needs maintenance, maintenance work can be better planned, thus increasing plant availability. Other potential advantages include increased equipment lifetime, increased plant safety, fewer accidents with negative impact on environment, and optimized spare parts handling.
