OMICRON Magazine

testing circuit breakers A broad spectrum of mechanical and electrical errors can occur in circuit breakers due to their design. For this reason a number of diagnostic tests must be carried out, which until now required multiple devices and a time-consuming wiring effort. Another important factor is the power supply being used during the test. Normal- ly, the substation battery is used to supply power for these tests, resulting in a volatile test voltage and less reliable test results. CIBANO 500 has revolutionized medium-voltage and high-voltage circuit breaker testing by com- bining a micro-ohmmeter, timing analyzer, and a coil and motor supply in a single device. A number of parameters such as switching times, static and dynamic contact resistance, motion sequences, coil and motor current, and undervoltage condi- tion and minimum pick-up tests, can all be tested with one single test setup. Testing times with CIBANO 500 are up to two thirds shorter than that of conventional solutions. Its integrated power supply also guarantees safe and independent operation, as well as reliable and reproducible measurement results. Having the ability to perform tests with a circuit breaker that is grounded on both sides increases the safety of all on-site personnel. The included Primary Test Manager TM software and its new Circuit Breaker Testing Library (CBTL) also support testing engineers on site with useful fea- tures such as test templates with pre-filled asset data, automatic assessment and test logging. In addition, all of the data can be collected, stored and managed in a single central database. testing power transformers Due to the complex design of transform- ers, there are a num- ber of parameters that need to be checked. This often requires multiple devices and wires that need to be connected and disconnected repeatedly. Testing individual phases and tap changer posi- tions not only increases the workload, but it also extends the transformer’s downtime. Testing transformers is the most time-consuming form of equipment testing in a substation – on average, a comprehensive test takes an entire working day. TESTRANO 600 is the world’s first three-phase, multifunctional and easily portable testing system (thanks to its weight of only 20 kg / 44 lbs). Its three powerful amplifiers minimize testing time while also ensuring a high level of measurement accuracy. Intelligent algorithms provide fully automatic, simultaneous testing of all three phases, thus, TESTRANO 600 needs just a third of the time that it takes to run tests with conventional single-phase testing solutions. In addition, a number of standard electrical tests can be carried out with just one test setup, such as measuring the transformer turns ratio, winding resistance, dynamic resistance, short-circuit impedance, as well as frequency response of stray losses. Combined with an intuitive connection technique, the probabil- ity of errors in the test setup and execution is minimized and leads to a significant reduction in testing time. Once the test is complete, the results can be evaluated automatically in accordance with international standards or user-defined limit values. The results can then be saved in the Primary Test Manager TM database, where they can be managed and stored for future reference. 16