Nicolas JAEGER
University of British Columbia

Optical Sensors for Power Utility Applications

---

It is clear that optical sensors and sensor systems will increasingly find applications in power transmission systems due to the numerous advantages that they can offer over conventional systems. These advantages typically include small size, light weight, high accuracy, low cost, immunity to electromagnetic interference, and compatibility with the digital substation of the future. Additionally, optical instrument transformers can offer much wider bandwidths, are lighter and therefore easier to install, and are more environmentally friendly than conventional instrument transformers. Fiber-optics-based sensors, a subset of optical sensors, typically provide the most reduction in size, complexity, and cost as well as increased performance as compared to bulk-optic devices. As optical sensors are gaining ground in revenue metering, equipment monitoring, protection, and control applications, their compactness is allowing designers to combine multiple sensors into a single unit reducing per unit and installation costs while occupying less real estate in the substation. For example, designers have been able to combine voltage and current instrument transformers in a single unit and incorporate either or both in other substation equipment such as power circuit breakers. It is increasingly apparent that, due to their improved performance and other advantages, optical sensor systems will play a large role in the power utility industry of the future.