A UWindsor engineering professor will be spending the next two years developing a device that will help cut down on the amount of time it takes to repair faulty power lines.~
Narayan Kar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, has received a grant of $35,280 from the Essex Power Corporation for a project to develop a wireless faulty detection system for electrical power distribution lines. He will be teaming up on the project with faculty colleague Kemal Tepe, who specializes in wireless communications.
Dr. Kar says power outages to consumers can sometimes result when distribution lines cross, during storms or when snow and ice build up on them. Repair crews need to go out and visually inspect and locate the damage before they fix those lines.
The funding Kar received will help the two professors develop a device that can be attached to power lines which would identify faults when they occur and then wirelessly transmit a signal to the power corporation’s headquarters pin-pointing exactly where the fault occurred.
“It’s very time-consuming to identify the fault and determine what kind of fault it is,” says Kar. “It cannot prevent a fault from happening but it would speed up the repair process so that it would lessen the amount of time people would have to remain in the dark.”
Relying on the expertise available at the University of Windsor seemed like an obvious choice for the Essex Power Corporation, said John Avdoulos, the company’s engineering and business development manager.
“We’re confident that this grant is a good investment in technical know-how and that it will go a long way towards improving the reliability of our service,” he said.
Kemal Tepe, left, and Narayan Kar will work to develop a device to help Essex Power more quickly identify and repair faults in electrical distribution lines.
News story provided by the University of Windsor Daily News