NEW
Take control of transformer health with next-gen PD monitoring that pinpoints faults, integrates seamlessly, and slashes downtime.
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Pinpoint PD location for proactive maintenance
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Hassle-free integration with minimal upkeep
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Maximum reliability and cost-effectiveness
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What is OptiFender?
OptiFender simplifies asset management with advanced, maintenance-free partial discharge (PD) monitoring. Its passive fiber-optic sensors and real-time analytics ensure accurate PD localization, reducing downtime and operational costs without requiring specialized expertise.
Improve financial performance, extend asset life, and enhance grid reliability effortlessly. OptiFender empowers smarter, predictive maintenance and proactive risk mitigation—ideal for modern, resilient power management.
Benefits
Optimize Your Assets with OptiFender
- Asset Life Extension: OptiFender enhances asset reliability and lifespan by providing expert-driven PD analysis and actionable recommendations, minimizing downtime and maintenance costs.
- Fast Decision-Making: Real-time insights and immediate data processing enable fast and informed decision-making, allowing prompt issue resolution and improved efficiency.
- Enhanced Detection and Localization: The system ensures precise and reliable PD detection and localization, preventing costly failures by identifying issues early.
- Secure Data Management: OptiFender protects sensitive information and maintains data integrity, crucial for handling critical infrastructure.
- Remote Accessibility: The system allows 24/7 asset monitoring from any location, beneficial for TSOs with widespread assets.
Your Benefits
Expert Insights
No PD expertise needed—OptiFender automatically detects, classifies, and interprets partial discharge data, providing precise, reliable insights effortlessly.
Enhanced Detection and Localization
Precisely pinpoint PD faults in real-time, enabling targeted interventions without asset shutdowns or on-site diagnostics, cutting repair cycles dramatically.
Cost Efficiency
Achieve substantial cost reductions through automated, maintenance-free monitoring that eliminates recalibration and minimizes downtime.
Secure Data Management
Ensure operational security with robust, EMI-immune fiber-optic sensors that reliably protect and transmit critical monitoring data, even in harsh environments.
Actionable Recommendations
Automated analytics deliver clear, actionable insights instantly, enabling faster, smarter maintenance decisions without relying on external experts.
In-depth Analysis
Leverage advanced analysis for deeper visibility into asset conditions, supporting accurate predictions and proactive asset lifecycle management.
Remote Accessibility
Monitor and manage assets remotely and conveniently from anywhere, eliminating the need for costly and time-consuming site visits.
24/7 Asset Monitoring
Continuous, round-the-clock oversight ensures early issue detection and uninterrupted asset performance, enhancing grid reliability.
Monitor an Entire Substation
Expand your visibility effortlessly to cover entire substations, simplifying oversight and ensuring comprehensive control of your electrical infrastructure.
The Revolution
Capabilities
- Immunity to Electromagnetic Interference (EMI)
- Passive Operation with No Power Requirement at the Sensing Location
- High Sensitivity for Early Detection
- Non-metallic Sensors
- Immediate Partial Discharge (PD) Localization Without the Need for Expert Insight
- Long Sensor Life
- Easy Integration or Retrofitting Capability
PD Monitoring for High Voltage Assets.
OptiFender allows to monitor a complete HV substation for partial discharge.
Transformers
Identify and localize PD sources to diagnose and monitor transformers.
Switchgear and Terminations
Detect partial discharge in cable terminations and switchgear.
How does it work
Passive Fiber Optic PD Sensor for Accurate Monitoring
OptiFender measures the acoustic emission signals of partial discharges and tracks their evolution over time with fiber optic PD sensors. The measuring principle behind the fiber optic PD sensor is based on acoustic emission technology.
The small and completely passive sensors can be easily installed on any kind of asset, enabling the detection of close-by internal and surface partial discharges.
The acoustic emission signals acquired by the sensor is transmitted to the acquisition unit through a standard telecommunication optical fiber. The acquired data is then displayed and analyzed through the dedicated software.
PD Localization
Partial Discharge Localization
The OptiFender system enables the precise localization of Partial Discharge (PD) sources with accuracy down to the centimeter level.
Harnessing this high-precision capability, OptiFender empowers maintenance teams to effectively identify and prioritize critical areas for intervention, ensuring optimal transformer health and longevity of the affected components.
DGA with OptiFender
DGA and Optifender: A Comprehensive Monitoring Solution
Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) and Optifender together provide a robust solution for transformer monitoring and maintenance. Here’s how they complement each other:
- Industry-Standard Diagnosis: DGA is recognized as the industry standard for initial diagnosis of transformer health, detecting and measuring specific gases that can indicate early signs of transformer faults.
- Secondary In-Depth Inspection: While DGA provides initial insights, PD localization through OptiFender offers a secondary, more in-depth inspection, pinpointing the exact location of potential issues for targeted maintenance.
- Continuous Monitoring: OptiFender facilitates ongoing surveillance of transformer performance, ensuring any anomalies detected by DGA are further analyzed for precise condition assessment.
- Expert Support: With OptiFender, partial discharge monitoring is automated and is recommending necessary actions together with the maintenance service team.
- Cost-Effective and Efficient: The combination of DGA and OptiFender of lengthy and expensive setup costs and reduces the maintenance burden, providing a cost-effective and efficient monitoring solution.
Daisy Chaining
Efficient Monitoring with Daisy-Chain Capabilities
The OptiFender system introduces a streamlined approach to monitoring with its innovative daisy-chaining capability.
By allowing multiple sensors to be interconnected along a single fiber optic line, it simplifies the setup while extending the monitoring reach. This setup can be strategically managed from the substation control room, where the acquisition unit centralizes data from sensors located even kilometers away.
Utilizing standard telecommunication optical fibers, the system offers a seamless, robust connection that ensures real-time data acquisition and analysis. With the ability to monitor a substantial number of sensors through a single acquisition unit, OptiFender sets a new standard for efficiency and reliability in the field of asset monitoring.
How does it compare to an electric system
Measuring internal Partial Discharge At PDIV and PDEV
Our revolutionising technology allows us to detect even the slightest indications of PD. Our success is not only demonstrated through the work we do with our clients but through our peer-reviewed research as well.
Optics11 PD Experts
Dr. Hamed Hashemi
Partial Discharge (PD) LeadDr. Hashemi's research and industrial backgrounds include high voltage engineering, PD tests, smart grids, power system studies, and reliability. He has successfully managed numerous high voltage testing and inspection projects and has supervised various postgraduate theses. Dr. Hashemi is a distinguished expert in PD testing of power transformers, cable systems, GISs, large generators, and so on. His extensive skills and experience enable Optics11 to deliver a professional interpretation of PD results and provide effective recommendations. For a comprehensive list of his publications and detailed achievements, please visit his Scholar profile: Hamed Hashemi-Dezaki- Google Scholar profile.
Dr. Aydin Zadeh
Engineering Manager Dr. Zadeh, with a PhD in fiber optic sensing and signal processing and a diverse background in electronics, mechanics, and aerospace engineering, leads application engineering at Optics11, driving innovation in fiber optic sensing solutions for energy, power grid, infrastructure, and industrial process monitoring.
Dr. Nikita Lebedev
Applied Data Scientist Dr. Lebedev is an Applied Data Scientist, experienced in data analysis algorithms for product integration and proof of concept, leveraging his experimental physics background and Python skills to help prevent critical failures, while also providing demos, training, reports, and supporting sales and R&D teams to advance insights in energy systems.
PD Expert Report
Actionable Insights at Your Fingertips
We believe in making complex data understandable. Our custom reports are not just detailed but also easy to comprehend, helping you make informed decisions about your assets. With Optifender MaaS, you get the results without the hassle.
Remember, with Optifender MaaS, you’re not just getting a service, you’re gaining a partner committed to the longevity of your infrastructure. Let us handle the complexities of PD monitoring while you focus on what you do best.
Questions and Answers
FAQ
OptiFender helps you save costs by significantly reducing maintenance expenses and downtime. Its passive, fiber-optic sensors require zero maintenance or recalibration after installation, eliminating ongoing operational costs. By providing real-time, remote PD localization, OptiFender reduces fault-to-repair cycles by up to 90%, preventing costly asset shutdowns and minimizing unplanned outages. Additionally, its automated analytics simplify asset management, reducing your reliance on external experts and freeing your team to focus on strategic tasks.
PD (Partial Discharge) monitoring helps prevent unplanned downtime, avoiding revenue loss, regulatory fines, increased insurance premiums, and damage to a utility company’s reputation by identifying potential high voltage assets failures before they occur.
PD sensing plays a crucial role in predictive and preventative maintenance, as well as in system reliability. PD monitoring enhances power system reliability through the early detection of potential failures. It helps prevent catastrophic failures, facilitates predictive maintenance, and extends the life of assets.
Yes, a failure, especially in HV and EHV systems, can stress redundant cable systems and generation sites, potentially causing cascading issues across the network and necessitating rapid emergency response to prevent widespread asset damage.
The OptiFender solution for PD sensing is applicable to all voltage levels from Medium Voltage (MV) to Extra High Voltage (EHV) without impacting the implementation cost of the system. This becomes especially advantageous for HV and EHV systems, as traditional PD monitoring solutions tend to become exponentially more costly as the voltage level increases.
Implementing PD sensing for vital assets and HV equipment is a key element in a comprehensive preventative maintenance strategy. While conventional tools like current, voltage, and temperature sensing are valuable, they lack the accuracy provided by PD monitoring. Almost 40% of substation transformer failures are due to dielectric breakdown, and 75% of cable system failures (excluding external physical forces) are also due to dielectric breakdown. Integrating PD sensing is essential for a detailed evaluation of asset health, guaranteeing a robust and forward-thinking maintenance approach.
OptiFender offers numerous advantages, such as cost-effectiveness across various voltage levels, adaptability to different voltage levels, accurate PD localization capabilities, retrofitting features, passive sensors that don’t need power at the sensing location, immunity to EMI and electrical background noise, long-distance operation, and precise PD sensing, allowing for immediate identification of the PD source in HV and EHV assets.
“As a service company dedicated to maintaining TSO substations, we’ve found the OptiFender product to be an exceptional tool in our arsenal. The process of integrating OptiFender into our workflow was smooth, and the quality of analysis from the PD experts has been consistently high. It’s made a significant difference in how we service substations, providing us with a reliable and effective solution for our TSO clients”
- A Service Company
