Exacter Inc

[magoo2]

A company called Exacter developed some equipment that collects RF signals and GIS coordinates to determine if a utility has any medium voltage equipment that may fail prematurely. My question is pretty basic - does this technology actually work?

For the utility folks out there, do you have any experience with this? If so, how well does it work?

 

[benlanz]

I am sure it detects EMI that is some times associated with breakdown mechanisms. The trouble is, there are no standards for what is good and bad EMI for most electrical equipment so the process leaves you guessing or relying on the vendor to decide what is good and bad. Another problem is that the equipment is exposed to the elements which means one day's buzzing component maybe tomorrow quiet component. The process seems to be subjective to me.

All the best

-Ben

Benjamin Lanz
Past Chair of IEEE 400
Manager of Applications Engineering
IMCORP- Power Cable Reliability Consultants

 

[magoo2]

Thank, Ben. I thought you were more of an underground guy. Anyway, I agree with your comments.