Company Announcement - Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, hasintroduced its new Premset architecture, now up to 17.5 kV, to southern African utilities looking to improve availability and safety, while still remaining flexible and modular. According to Canninah Mapena, director of the energy division at Schneider Electric South Africa, the compact modular vacuum switchgear, a next generation of medium voltage (MV) switchgear, is a new way to design, install, and operate MV networks.
“With three-in-one breaking-disconnecting-earthing functions, it also features smart-grid functionality and a distributed architecture for easy installation, operation and scalability. It is so compact it fits in any environment,” she says.
Mapena adds that with its shielded solid insulation (2SIS) the risk of internal arc is reduced. She also highlights that the intelligent electronic devices used in the Premset system have been designed to optimise substation performance.
“Based on standard communications protocol, they have a plug-and-play scanning system for easy configuration,” she says. Because it has been designed for the smart grid, the Premset switchgear enables greater efficiency through advanced monitoring and control. It helps ensure peak network performance in several ways, including feeder automation with built-in communication and local intelligence, load management with integrated smart metering, assets management with the advanced monitoring of switchgear, and the use of standard communication protocols.
“Premset’s smart grid embedded features are improving the management of today’s networks and are anticipating the future, more severe requirements of grid-management regulations,” says Mapena.