SMART WIRES™ MILLENNIUM MILESTONE
In mid-November, Smart Wires passed a noteworthy milestone: 1,000 device-years1 of field run-time. Deployments are spread across three continents – Europe, Australia and North America – and include a variety of devices across Guardian™ and SmartValve™ product families.
After receiving Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) grant funding in 2011, Smart Wires moved from prototype to field-ready unit in less than a year. The first ever modular power flow control devices were installed on Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)’s system in 2012. Since then, leading utilities across the world have embraced the flexibility offered by Smart Wires solutions. EirGrid, RTE, Southern Company, Pacific Gas & Electric, Minnesota Power and TransGrid are among the utilities with Smart Wires installations.
The 1,000 device-years of field run-time have been accumulated across a voltage levels from 63 kV to 230 kV and ambient conditions ranging from sub-zero degree days in Minnesota to calm days in the South West of France to hurricane force winds in Ireland. The units have thrived in all conditions.
Bob Suehiro, VP of Customer Support and Installation, and his team oversee installations and commissioning of Smart Wires products and are responsible for ensuring customer satisfaction with operation of the units after installation. “It’s so exciting to pass this milestone and amazing to see how far we’ve come as a company. Next year is going to be a very busy year for us, so we look forward to achieving the second millennium milestone in no time at all!”
1 Device Years are computed by taking the number of devices at a particular installation and multiplying that by the number of years that installation has been in service. The total Device Years is the sum of all the individual installation Device Years.
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