User Spotlight Series: Week 3

Presenter: Franz Stadtmueller, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)

Abstract: Through the California Public Utility Commission’s Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program, Pacific Gas & Electric Company has been exploring new technologies to reduce the risk of wildfires and keep communities safe. REFCL (Rapid Earth Fault Current Limiter) technology is designed to “limit” the amount of fault current that can flow as result of a phase-to-ground fault. This reduction in current flow significantly reduces the risk that bare-wire on the ground will cause a fire given that the propensity for arcing is reduced. REFCL can reduce the conductor-soil arcing in many circumstances to levels below that required to start a fire.

EPIC 3.15 is a demonstration of REFCL technology at one of PG&E’s distribution substations for proactive wires down risk mitigation. The substation is converted from solid uni-grounding to an extension of resonant grounding via a Ground Fault Neutralizer (GFN). RTDS Technologies’ real-time digital simulator (RTDS) is being used to simulate the compensated distribution networks and perform control hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL) testing. The RTDS is interfaced with the protection and control devices, which are used in the field installation, to test different scenarios and confirm proper settings and operation. Different fault locations, fault impedances, advanced control algorithms, and system response can be efficiently tested prior to field installation.

​Bio: Franz Stadtmueller received his BS in Electrical Engineering/Power Systems & Electronics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and works as a Senior Advising Electrical Engineer in the Grid Technology Engineering & Evaluation unit at Pacific Gas & Electric’s Applied Technology Services Department.  Prior to PG&E he worked at SPX Transformer Solutions in extra high voltage (EHV) testing.  Franz is a subject matter expert in the area of power system modeling and electrical testing and has most recently been the ATS technical lead on PG&E’s Rapid Earth Fault Current Limiter (REFCL) project, smart meter partial voltage detection, and remote grid and Grid Needs Assessment (GNA) CYME Python automation projects.  He has also supported United States Department of Energy projects under the SunShot initiative, modeling and studying distributed PV generation and electric vehicle integration.