Online Thermal Imaging Solution for Substation Temperature Monitoring Electric power utilities are faced with an aging infrastructure, increasing the risk of blackouts, and brownouts. A brownout is a drop in voltage in an electrical power supply, so named because it typically causes lights to dim. Utilities also face costly unplanned maintenance and rising costs. Utilities are looking for ways to address these issues in order to improve the reliability of electric power delivery while at the same time reducing costs. By using FLIR thermal imaging cameras and automation software, impending equipment failures and security breaches can be detected anytime, day or night, at a remote monitoring location. The net effect is increased reliability and reduced cost.

• FLIR thermal imaging cameras recognize differences in the heat signatures of electrical components and the surrounding background (such as the sky or clouds) and can compare the temperatures of similar components in close proximity to one another. Built-in logic, memory, and data communications allow them to compare the temperatures in their images with user-defined settings, and send that data to a central monitoring station for trend analysis, triggering alarms, and generating exception reports. They can even notify facility managers in remote offices of abnormal conditions by triggering an email message. This makes them ideal for unattended monitoring of substation equipment.
• Thermal imaging cameras do not require light to produce images, and can see hot spots well before excessive heat or loss of insulation leads to failure. They can be mounted in all-weather housings and placed on pan/tilt drive mechanisms to survey large areas of a substation. Due to FLIRs wide selection of lenses with different focal lengths. Therefore, they support 24/7 monitoring in all types of weather and locations.