Tel Aviv-based utility monitoring firm Prisma Photonics is rolling out its 3rd generation Beacon unit, which monitors power lines and other critical infrastructure with fiber optic sensing technology developed by the company.
Leveraging Prisma Photonics’ Hyper-Scan Fiber Sensing technology, Beacon 3enables large-scale infrastructure monitoring by covering 200 kilometers (124 miles) – the distance between Los Angeles and San Diego – with one device offering a small footprint.
The company developed a one rack unit (1U) optical interrogator and a three rack unit (3U) comprehensive edge computing data analyzer.
Beacon 3 can scale to cover the large networks that power grid operators maintain with automated calibration, low false alarm rates and an installation time of about two hours, according to the company.
PrismaPower, powerline monitoring solution, uses Beacon’s distributed fiber optic sensing. This enables TSOs to monitor powerlines accurately for hundreds and thousands of kilometers in real-time – without adding sensors on lines or towers. PrismaPower leverages existing optical ground wire (OPGW) cables to deliver a new level of visibility into powerline status. The system remotely identifies safety events like physical damage, extreme weather, electrical faults, vandalism, and more in real-time. PrismaPower also tracks partial discharges and corona buildup to predict which towers are more prone and allow preventive maintenance. By pinpointing faults to the individual tower level, PrismaPower helps operators minimize downtime. Even more importantly, by predicting or catching events early – before they escalate to outages – PrismaPower can prevent faults and actually enhance grid reliability
PrismaFlow, Beacon-powered pipeline monitoring solution, enables midstream operators to instantly monitor thousands of kilometers of transmission pipelines for leaks and third-party intrusion, and even theft accurately and in real-time – without installing any additional sensors. PrismaFlow leverages the existing optical fiber network deployed with transmission pipelines – turning these within hours into a set of highly sensitive distributed sensors that identify leaks, digging, intrusion, and pig activity. With state-of-the-art event classification capabilities, PrismaFlow is a game-changing monitoring solution offering best-in-class low false alarm rate (FAR) and nuisance alarm rate. PrismaFlow is effective on installation day – lowering monitoring costs and offering an innovative pay-as-you-grow service model, as well as a more traditional ownership model.
Prisma Photonics solutions cover multiple markets, which share the need to monitor and manage large-scale infrastructures such as power transmission grids, oil and gas transmission pipelines, long-spanning railways, highways and subsea cables and pipes. Its fiber sensing technology offers safer, secure, efficient, and cost-effective operations while protecting the environment by preventing spills, wildfires, and other environmental hazards.
Prisma Photonics customers manage thousands of kilometers of infrastructures, among them New York Power Authority, Israeli Natural Gas Lines and Israel Electric Corp.
