With an innovative solution, Treetech achieves the mark of 3,000 monitored bushings around the planet

The year was 2003, and Treetech once again innovated with the release of the BM Bushing Monitor. Fourteen years later and the sensor gained the world, being adopted by companies of the power sector of all continents, accredited by experts, and achieving, in 2017, the expressive mark of more than 3,000 monitored bushings. The success and consolidation of BM are paved in a long road of victories.

In its “Résumé”, the Treetech Bushing Monitor has marking facts that proved its efficacy and that avoided substantial losses and blackouts, in some cases Such results were observed in Brazil, sometimes, and in the United States.

The BM is also part of large designs, such as the transmission line of Madeira River, responsible for connecting the hydroelectric plants of Jirau and Santo Antônio, in the north of the country, with the southeast region, the largest consumer of electric power in Brazil. With approximately 2,400 km, this is the world’s largest transmission line.

In addition to the excellency in the field, the BM became a theoretical reference when the subject is the monitoring of capacitive bushings. Several articles have already been presented in the most important trade shows of the electric sector in Brazil. In 2012, Treetech was chosen to present in Paris an article on bushing monitoring, at the main event of CIGRÉ.

The pioneerism of the Treetech solution is attested by two patents granted by the United States, one to the sensor and the other to improvements made after the release.

The IED monitors continuously the tan delta, capacitance and leakage current in the bushings, CT’s (current transformers) and PT’s (voltage or potential transformers) of the power transformers. Installed in over 800 bushings worldwide, the IED provides complete diagnosis of the insulation condition of these pieces of equipment. Thus, potentially catastrophic failures can be prevented, in that the problems are detected still in the incipient phase.

The figure on the side represents the three parts of the BM (click on the image and learn more about the product):

• • The tap adapter ensures the electrical connection between the bushing tap and the IED, weather-proof sealing and protections against overvoltages and overcurrents, aside from preserving the tap against possible accidental opening of the measurement circuit;
  • The BM-MM measurement module receives leakage currents from up to three bushings of the same three phase assembly and carries out the measurements of these currents, as well as their mathematical and statistical processing.
  • The BM-HMI interface module receives the information from the measurement module and makes it available on its front monitor. Aside from this, it has analog outputs, alarm relays and serial communication ports available to the user.