Collaboration to focus on advanced power quality monitoring

ABB, a leading power and automation technology company, and Ambient Corporation, provider of a secure, flexible and scalable smart grid communications and applications platform, announced the integration of DistribuSense™ current and voltage sensors with AmbientPQM™ for advanced power quality monitoring and communications. The integrated product is a combination of hardware and software, Ambient Smart Grid Communications Nodes enabled with AmbientPQM™, that enhances the ABB DistribuSense™ offering by adding local intelligence, management, communications, and alarm reporting at the location of the sensors. The combined DistribuSense™ and AmbientPQM™ solution facilitates grid management through real-time monitoring, and measurement of an extensive and configurable array of power quality parameters, to increase efficiency through Volt/VAR Optimization (VVO), and reliability through Fault Detection, Isolation and Restoration (FDIR). The standard, high-quality current/voltage output signals from the ABB sensor are read by AmbientPQM™ and processed for local decision-making, or directed to the appropriate head-end system through standard protocols. The combined solution is cost-effective for utilities offering flexibility in the choice of backhaul communication technology, and local control of data at the sensor. Utilities benefit from a high-performance end-to-end solution that enhances distribution reliability and efficiency by decreasing energy costs, protecting revenue, avoiding costly regulatory penalties, and boosting customer satisfaction. "Distribution monitoring will allow our utility customers to make their distribution networks more efficient, reduce their generation needs, and reduce their operating costs," says Steve Lindsay, Marketing and Sales Manager for ABB's Power Products Medium Voltage Distribution Components business unit in Pinetops, North Carolina. "A collaborative effort between ABB and Ambient will lead the way in new distribution grid reliability and energy efficiency initiatives and we are both proud to contribute to these activities." Ambient's robust IP-based communications capabilities allow utilities deploying DistribuSense™ sensors flexibility in choosing how and when data is returned to the utility, and over which preferred public or private network the data is communicated. "We welcome this collaboration with ABB," stated John J. Joyce, President and CEO of Ambient. "Such collaborations enable utility customers to deploy innovative solutions that deliver the promise of an advanced, modern distribution grid." ABB Ambient