After an extended absence, it’s time to relaunch our Australian Newsletter, on a quarterly basis.  We want to use this forum to provide our Australian customers. with meaningful, relevant, information on products and services from HV Power.

This time last year Warwick Beech (our PQ “sage” & Marketing Director) stepped up to the role of director and shareholder of HV Power. Also at that time Mike Strong’s became MD. Geoff continues in the business as a director and has been working reduced hours through 2018. At the front end of our sales activities Shank Paramanathan has responsibilities for NSW and QLD customers. These changes are geared to take the company to “the next level” and a future we are very positive about.

Whilst there have been some organisational changes at HV Power, we still maintain our core focus of providing technologically advanced products to the power generation, transmission and distribution networks, with industry best technical support.

The growth in our business, particularly MV Switchgear sales in New Zealand has been rapid and consistent, which also points us to a very positive outlook for the year ahead.

The challenges facing the Australian Power Utility sector are ongoing, with impact from regulatory, technical and commercial issues continuing. The ongoing political position with regards to renewables, residential PV uptake, privatisation and climate change policy remain pernicious drivers in the sector.

As is the Australian way, we continue to push on and get through these challenging times. The good news is that we are seeing progress in many areas. It’s our heart- felt belief that to maintain a positive outlook is imperative during the rebuilding that is occurring still.

We wish our readers a very Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and prosperous 2019!

We look forward to working with you next year, and beyond.

After 15 years in production, component availability is forcing the early retirement of A.Eberle’s REG-PED SCADA cards that are used in REG-D, REG-DA voltage regulators and similar products.

NOTE: There are no changes in the supply of REG-D and REG-DA themselves.

A new series of cards providing enhanced cyber-security, which have been in development, are now being released to take over from the REG-PED.

For REG-D
The new REG-PED^SV (SV = Sampled Values) is a pin-compatible replacement to the REG-PED. As standard, the REG-PED^SV offers two Ethernet ports, but can be optionally fitted with an additional retrofitable module providing a further two Ethernet ports – for gathering sampled measured values from IEC 61850-9-2 process bus environments. The REG-PED^SV features an on-board pluggable micro-SD-card, which can be loaded with new firmware and the card jumpered to firmware update on reboot. The micro-SD-card can also be used for storing of logging data (or even manuals), with its contents accessible via the new front-panel USB interface (micro B type).

The RJ45 copper Ethernet interfaces are 10/100/1000 Mbit rated. Where equipped with fibre optic interfaces for Ethernet Ports 1 & 2, these are 100/1000 Mbit software selectable, allowing use on gigabit systems. Fibre optic ports 3 & 4 need to be specified at order as either 100 or 1000 Mbits.

The PED^SV card still offers serial COM1/2/3 interfaces, so COM1 or COM3 can be used for serial protocol, or for remote engineering connection to the 'REG-D'. The appropriate wiring out of the desired interfaces must be specified in the design drawings. The REG-PED did feature a DB-9 connector on the rear of the card, which provided another method to access to COM1 interface (but COM1 interface was often wired out to the rear enclosure screw terminals to connect to via there). In the REG-PED^SV, the DB-9 is removed (to make way for optional Ethernet ports 3&4) – but a COM1 connection can still be made via wiring to the rear enclosure terminals etc.

The new REG-PED^SV card will:

• Require WinConfig version 13.1 (or later) to be used to load SCADA settings
• Offer LC connectors only where fibre is specified (optional 1m LC-to-ST fibre adaptor cable can be made available if required)
• Need a new rear cut-out if a REG-PED^SV as the cut-out provided at the back of a new relay with a REG-PED^SV is a slightly different shape to its predecessor

For REG-DA
A version of the REG-PED^SV is available for the REG-DA which offers the same features as that described for the REG-D. However, this requires one more expansion slot than the existing REG-PED. Therefore, it does not allow (for example) 2 x PT100 inputs to be fitted.

Where customers want to retain access to the two 'spare' slots in the REG-DA, a new REG-PE card is available. The new REG-PE features two Ethernet interfaces, so from our point of view, it’s the logical alternative for the existing REG-DA ‘PED’.

The new REG-PE (with two Ethernet ports) will:

• Only require two slots, leaving two free (like the old REG-PED SCADA card)
• Have two Ethernet ports with choice of 2 x Cu, 1 x CU + 1 x FO or 2 x FO interfaces. The FO interfaces can be ST or LC type
• Provide acess to DNP (serial) or MODBUS RTU protocols via inbuilt serial interface
• Require WinConfig version 13.1 (or later) to be used to load SCADA settings

Old PED cards are no longer available, so supply of REG-PED^SV and new REG-PE cards are being expedited. We will contact customers shortly where this needs to occur for an existing order. We’re expecting there might be a few technical questions, so remind you that the quickest route to support is by contacting our Service Support team on 0800 HV CALL.

You do not need to update the REG-D/DA firmware to use the new SCADA protocol cards, but must use new SCADA protocol software WinConfig 13.1 or later.

Example of REG-PED^SV SCADA card for REG-D.

The PQ-Box 300 features the ability to measure and report up to the 3,400th harmonic voltage - way beyond the traditional 50th harmonic that most utilities PQ devices are capable of measuring. It was built in response to the need to see what effect modern PV inverters and EV chargers have on the power system. Not everyone needs that capability of measurement – but serious consideration should be given to use of PQ recorders with more than the traditional 10 kHz sampling /50th harmonic measurement capability.

The risk of using a PQ logger with lower sampling speed is that the device is not going to show you high-order effects that may be present on your network. You will get a ‘filtered’ view, not showing the true picture of what equipment on your network is actually being subjected to.

As a picture is worth a thousand words, the image below shows results obtained from monitoring the same power supply (at the same time) with a 10 kHz sampling device (the PQ-Box 100, with 50th harmonic capability) and a 40 kHz sampling device (the PQ-Box 200 with 200th harmonic capability). [Unfortunately a PQ-Box 300 was not available at the time this comparison was undertaken].

PQ-Box 100 shows a pure sine wave.

PQ-Box 200 shows sine wave distortion.

‘WinPQ smart’ setup and analysis software version 4.5.0 for the ‘PQI-DA smart’ has now been released. A free update is available on-line. This new software borrows layouts from the ‘WinPQ mobil’ software providing a graphical layout for basic device setup. Online data views have also been improved, together with various fixes.

This is truly an impressive Power Quality monitoring device which caters to many different needs. PQI-IDA smart has the measurement capability similar to A.Eberle’s Portable PQ Box 150 Analyser. For sites without comm’s infrastructure, the unit can be fitted with a memory card to store data at site, ready for manual uplift. At sites with comm’s, real-time data can be streamed to a desktop or database.

PQI-DA smart power quality recorder.

New firmware has been released for the PQI-DA smart (Version 1.8.10) which contains improvements including supporting a wider range of CT ratios.

‘WinPQ smart’ setup and analysis software version 4.5.0 for the ‘PQI-DA smart’ has now been released. A free update is available on-line. This new software borrows layouts from the ‘WinPQ mobil’ software providing a graphical layout for basic device setup. Online data views have also been improved, together with various fixes.