The Bonneville Power Administration is pioneering new gee-whiz electrical power grid technology that sounds like something out of Star Trek. BPA engineers are building super-fast new sensors and installing them all across BPA's sprawling system.They call the things phasor measurement units. Or in BPA techno-speak - Synchrophasors.
They're not designed to blast alien spaceships, however, Syncrophasors are meant to warn of possible problems in the western power grid that could lead to rolling blackouts, such as the one which left western Arizona and southern California in the dark three years ago.
The shoebox-sized gizmos are a hundred times faster than the standard systems. BPA has installed 126 synchrophasors at 50 substations and wind farms that feed operational data 60 times a second.
The point is to give operators instant warnings of problems that might cause havoc in the power distribution system. BPA executives said the sensors allow instantaneous warnings of disturbances in the grid from Canada to Mexico.
One engineer said the new sensors are akin to making the technology leap from black and white TV to super high definition units. The federal power agency spent about $32 million building and installing the phasors.