Development of a three-phase polymeric recloser for overhead networks up to 27kV, integrated with LoRA and NB-IoT networks

• Grant number: 21/06472-8
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Duration: November 01, 2021 - December 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Electrical Engineering - Power Systems
• Convênio/Acordo: FINEP - PIPE/PAPPE Grant
• Principal Investigator: Celso Garcia Lellis Junior
• Grantee: Celso Garcia Lellis Junior
• Host Company: Hart Energia Projetos e Engenharia Eireli
• CNAE: Serviços de engenharia
• City: Barueri
• Associated researchers: Ayres Antonio Paes de Oliveira

Abstract

Aerial electrical networks, widely used as a basis for energy distribution in a large part of the national territory, usually present problems caused by vegetation and climatic events, which result in transient faults, causing constant power interruptions. This has a direct consequence in the deterioration of the quality of energy supply indicators with consumers and causes high costs of maintenance and operation for the concessionaires. To minimize such events, companies have invested in "reclosers", which today are the only solution to address such problems. However, several equipment have a high cost, high maintenance rate and are still products built on the same principles of 40 to 50 years, all of them imported from large multinational companies. Thus, the aspects of cost reduction, import substitution, constructive simplification, and increased functionality performed in traditional equipment are the main drivers of this project. In view of these demands, HART BR, in partnership with technology-based companies, and R&D institutes, developed between 2018 and 2020, a fully polymeric recloser, with integrated protection and communication functions, of low cost and self-powered, supported by solar cells, a project sponsored by the ANEEL R&D program, cycle 2018, called New Automation and Grid Elements, with Advanced Distributed Intelligence Functions, with the energy distributor EDP as sponsor. This product has several advantages over its counterparts available in the Brazilian market, which are all supplied by multinational companies. The integration of different functions, in a single product, makes the solution more reliable, simple, and cost attractive. The development, according to the innovation chain, reached the Experimental Development stage, having as a result the production of 3 100% functional prototypes that were presented to EDP in 2020. The product to be developed and introduced into the market, 3F recloser, will be aimed at automation and protection of medium voltage overhead electrical networks (27kV class), and will have three-pole action, self-configuring, low-cost, and will use new industrial and energy conservation, operating with an unprecedented bistable magnetic actuator, associated with a conventional vacuum ampoule, self-powered by the electrical network by induction and an auxiliary support system by solar energy, built in polymeric material injected at high pressure. It will be integrated with the new IoT networks, by LoRA and NB-IoT radios, allowing its integration with the SCADA remote supervision system of electric energy distributors. This equipment will be used in the main backbones of electrical networks, replacing traditional reclosers and circuit breakers, with the advantages of cost reduction, integration of various functions and absence of preventive maintenance. (AU)