Engineering & Industry Insights
Technical articles on distribution transformer condition monitoring, recloser wear modeling, SCADA integration, and utility asset reliability from the Fieldiq engineering team.
What the Fieldiq Pilot Program Actually Looks Like: Timeline, Instrumentation, and First-Flag Expectations
We get a consistent set of questions from asset reliability engineering teams evaluating Fieldiq: how long until first anomaly flag, what sensors do we need, how does the SCADA integration work?
Where Condition Monitoring Fits in a DERMS-Enabled Distribution Network
As DERs push more two-directional load onto aging distribution transformers and reclosers, the failure risk profile of those assets changes.
Condition-Based vs. Time-Based Maintenance for Distribution Assets: The Economic Case
Most electric utility maintenance programs still run on fixed intervals. We look at the economic evidence for switching to condition-based triggers.
Transformer Fleet Risk Scoring: How to Prioritize Maintenance Dispatch Across Hundreds of Field Assets
With anomaly flags across a fleet of 600+ distribution transformers, which ones dispatch first? We walk through the composite risk score Fieldiq uses.
Connecting Field Asset Telemetry to PI Historian: Practical Tag Naming, Compression Settings, and Retrieval Patterns
Bringing distribution field-asset telemetry into the historian requires decisions about tag hierarchy, compression deadband, and PI AF structure.
Heat Wave Season: How Elevated Ambient Temperature Changes Your Transformer Failure Risk Curve
The 2023 Texas heat event caused transformer loading to exceed nameplate ratings across multiple distribution feeders. We model the interaction between ambient temperature and failure probability.
Connectivity Realities for Distributed T&D Asset Monitoring: Cellular, RF Mesh, and What Works in Rural Feeders
A pole-top transformer on a rural feeder may have intermittent cellular signal and no substation LAN. We cover the connectivity architectures that work in practice.
NERC CIP-013 and OT Asset Monitoring: What Reliability Engineers Need to Know
CIP-013 supply chain risk management has implications for the sensors and software that touch operational technology assets.
Reading Tap-Changer Wear Signals in Step Voltage Regulators Before the Contacts Fail
Tap-changer contact wear produces characteristic temperature rise and load-current signatures weeks before a hard failure.
Why Per-Asset-Class Anomaly Models Outperform Generic Vibration Thresholds for Distribution Equipment
A 37.5 kVA pad-mount transformer has a different mechanical signature than a 500 kVA pole-top unit. We quantify the precision difference.
How Much of Your SAIDI Is Distribution Transformer Failure? The Numbers from Texas IOU Data
Distribution transformer failures accounted for roughly 18–23% of sustained outage minutes in ERCOT-area IOU filings from 2021 to 2023.
Beyond Operation Count: Modeling Mechanical Wear in Line Reclosers with Load and Temperature Context
Operation-count thresholds are a blunt instrument for recloser maintenance. Load profile and ambient temperature context dramatically changes how fast contact wear accumulates.
Integrating Condition Monitoring into Existing SCADA Without a Rip-and-Replace
Most utilities are not starting from a blank slate. This post walks through the practical integration path for adding field-asset telemetry to an SCADA environment.
Incipient Fault Detection in Distribution Transformers: What Vibration Tells You Before DGA Can
Dissolved gas analysis catches transformer degradation after it has already begun generating gas. Vibration signatures catch the mechanical precursors weeks earlier.
See Fieldiq on your distribution assets
The engineering behind these articles is available as a pilot deployment on your transformer, recloser, and regulator fleet. Contact us to discuss your service territory.