Like many utilities, Alabama Power is leveraging technology to improve operational awareness and reduce costs. The company was recently recognized at the 2022 Southeastern Electric Exchange (SEE) Conference with an Industry Excellence Award in the substations category.

Substations transform voltage from high to low or vice versa and perform critical functions in getting power from generating plants to customers. Alabama Power is continuously improving substation performance by addressing time-based maintenance of circuit breakers and the difficulty of detecting problems. In addition, circuit breaker opening and closing speeds are a leading indicator of maintenance issues relating to lubrication and component wear.

One solution is using microprocessor protective relays already on the system to monitor the breaker’s operating speed and contact wear; however, the Alabama Power team faced a challenge – the relay event text files were not machine-readable.

To address this challenge, the team developed an automated solution using Python programming language and JavaScript Object Notation to parse the relay event text files into a machine-readable format.

By creating technology to use existing protective relays to monitor the performance of substation circuit breakers, Alabama Power’s system can detect problems whenever a breaker operates and well before customers are affected. Now breaker performance characteristics are analyzed in real time and automated alarms are sent.

In addition to improving efficiency in tracking circuit breaker performance, the company has also achieved patent-pending status for its development of the circuit breaker software.

SEE is a nonprofit association of investor-owned electric utilities. Founded in 1933, the association seeks to enhance the human, operational and technical resources of its members, and assists in coordination of storm restoration services. Learn more about SEE by clicking here. To learn more about how Alabama Power and its employees are involved in fostering innovation, click here.