Prolec, Ubicquia Team on Intelligent Electric Transformer

Infrastructure firm Prolec and utility equipment firm Ubicquia have combined efforts to design and market what they call a fully integrated smart transformer.

The new transformers deliver real-time monitoring and grid analytics. Units have begun shipping to North American utilities for field trials.

The companies collaborated to integrate Ubicquia’s UbiGrid distribution transformer monitoring (DTM+) platform into Prolec’s single-phase pad mount transformers across a wide range of sizes. The integration, testing and certification is performed in Prolec’s Monterrey, Mexico facility, a maker of distribution transformers.

The intelligent transformer provides real-time electrical and physical transformer health data along with advanced grid analytics deployed at scale. Ubicquia has delivered more than 30,000 units to monitor single-phase and three phase transformers to major utilities across the US and Latin America.

Commercial availability of the intelligent transformer is planned for 2024.

By integrating the UbiGrid DTM+ platform into its transformers, Prolec eliminates the need for utilities to retrofit units in the field and reduces the total cost for a smart transformer.

Use cases for the transformer include:

• Predicting transformer outages to improve reliability;
• Detecting and diagnosing issues with failed assets to optimize field resources and improve storm response;
• Improving capacity planning, which has become more complex with the significant growth in electric vehicles, supply chain constraints, and distributed energy generation; and
• Providing additional resilience for industrial and critical loads.