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Second Wind News Archives
Utility Controls Substations with New Power Transducer
21 August 1997 — Florida Power & Light
(FPL) has selected Second Wind Inc. (SWI) of Somerville, MA to supply
digital power transducers for monitoring and control of power quality
for distribution feeders reaching retail consumers. Voltage regulators
will be monitored and controlled with Second Wind’s transducers.
SWI is providing monitoring equipment for the first 50 distribution
substations, largely those serving Miami, with plans for the remaining
substations to follow in the coming years. FPL serves over 3.6 million
customers.
The new programmable transducers fill the utitily’s need for
greater voltage control and more points of information collection
with the existing SCADA system. Significant amounts of new data are
collected with the SWI transducers, and integrated into the utility’s
original SCADA system. Utility distribution system assets can be
used more efficiently, and deferral of upgrades will pay for the
data collection many times over.
"Florida Power & Light is an innovator in the utility sector," said
Walter Sass, president of SWI. "We are very proud to have been selected
after competing with larger power measurement manufacturers. This is a
boost to our efforts to establish Second Wind as a supplier of distribution
automation solutions for electric power systems."
Second Wind introduced an advanced, yet economical, power transducer
called Phaser® for industrial and utility applications in April
of this year. Digital signal processing of power measurements by
microprocessors allows calculation of power, power factor, voltage,
current, and harmonic distortion with a single unit. In the past,
analog transducers designed for each characteristic of power were
needed.
SWI began business in 1980 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, providing
instrumentation for the wind energy industry. Now located in Somerville,
SWI is using the same skills and cost-sensitive innovations to provide
industry with operational tools for a changing world. Second Wind
sponsored research at the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology's
Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems for this new
product line.
About Second Wind Inc.
Founded in 1980, Second Wind Inc. advances the use of wind data to make wind energy more profitable for owners, painless for operators and practical for consumers. Key products include: Nomad® data logger and tower systems; Triton® sodar systems; SkyServe® satellite wind data service and Phaser® power transducers. Second Wind is headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA, and is privately held. For more information on the Triton sonic wind profiler or SkyServe satellite wind data service and Second Wind's other products, visit www.secondwind.com.
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