SMART CABLE GUARD: TECHNOLOGY

Smart Cable Guard technology

Smart Cable Guard is a proven digital solution for real-time monitoring of distribution cables. Unlike offline solutions which provide a sporadic snapshot of a cable’s condition, Smart Cable Guard offers round-the-clock monitoring for total visibility. It detects cable faults, for example caused by excavation works, in minutes. Moreover, it can identify weak spots in the cable, often many weeks or months before they develop into actual faults.

Rapid alerts via an online platform

Smart Cable Guard monitors cables via a sensor unit at each end. You can review the health status of all your monitored cables at any time via our online platform. If a fault or weak spot is detected, you will receive an alert within 5 minutes – indicating the nature, location and urgency of the issue. Additionally our expert support provides you with tailored recommendations and timelines for maintaining or replacing the affected cable.

Accurate real-time fault location

Unlike offline testing, Smart Cable Guard does not put any stress on cables. Our real-time fault location is based on detecting the travelling waves the fault produces in the cable. This results in high location accuracy without any risk of cable damage.

These waves are always present when a fault occurs even with high-impedance faults or when a short-circuit current is undetectable. As a result, Smart Cable Guard can detect faults in a wide range of cables and networks. Our patented pulse injection technology keeps sensors synchronized to within 20 nanoseconds. That helps Smart Cable Guard locate faults and weak spots within 1% of the monitored cable length.

Now available: The third generation of Smart Cable Guard, which allows for rapid installation in outdoor environments.

AI-enhanced weak spot detection

Partial discharge (PD) activity is a good indicator of a developing weak spot in a cable. As PD activity is often sporadic and builds up over time, it can be hard to pick up with offline monitoring. Smart Cable Guard’s pulse injection technology provides 24/7 surveillance of partial discharge activity – so no weak spot is missed. Advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence help to reduce false positives and classify the urgency of the developing weak spot.

Seamless integration into your operations

Integration with your existing asset management and operations systems, such as GIS and SCADA, is simple thanks to a robust application programming interface (API). This allows for automated data sharing between systems for more efficient operations. Notifications of faults and weak spots can be automatically shared with distribution automation systems for seamless rerouting and with work-planning tools to streamline maintenance scheduling. Smart Cable Guard data also integrates with information from other platforms for large-scale data science analyses to support longer-term grid optimization.