TUCKER, Georgia (May 06, 2021) — A team from Georgia Transmission was recently honored with the 2019 Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) Walter Elmore Best Paper Award at the institute’s 2021 Protective Relaying Conference. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, earlier recognition was delayed. The prestigious award recognizes the technical paper presented at the conference that receives the highest voting score from conference attendees. More than 40 papers are presented at the conference annually.
The Georgia Transmission team was comprised of Jeff Brogdon, manager, system protection and control; Sadel Fetic, principal engineer, system protection and control; and Addis Kifle, supervisor, system protection and control. Their paper, titled “Analysis of Microprocessor Relay Response on Surge Arrestor Protection Schemes,” discusses the benefits of installing surge arrester protection schemes in certain situations.
“We are excited that Jeff, Sadel and Addis have received this well-deserved peer recognition,” said Vice President for System Planning Joe Sowell. “Innovation, research and collaboration are core principles at Georgia Transmission, and we encourage all of our associates to pursue innovative solutions in their field. We believe that by constantly pursuing continuous improvement activities, we remain well-positioned to provide our members with the best in reliable service that they expect and upon which millions of Georgians rely. Receiving peer recognition for your research is not only a huge honor but a great report card on your research activities. Congratulations team!”
Surge arrester protection schemes, also known as fault bus protection, are used by utilities to extend the transformer zone of protection, shorten the duration of line outages and improve system reliability. This scheme typically consists of an instantaneous overcurrent element utilizing one or more current transformers connected in the earth fault path. In the paper presented by the Georgia Transmission team, they discussed the overall benefits of installing the scheme and provided best practices for setting a microprocessor relay to perform. The team further supported their discussion by providing readers with data from simulated scenarios.
About Georgia Transmission
Georgia Transmission Corp., a not-for-profit cooperative owned by 38 Electric Membership Corporations (EMCs), owns more than 3,500 miles of high-voltage transmission lines and more than 760 substations. These facilities deliver power to Georgia’s EMCs, providing electricity to more than 4.3 million Georgians. For more information, visit gatrans.com.
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