Improve Safety and Protect Systems

Download PDF version

Isolated or ungrounded battery systems need continuous monitoring for ground faults. Kinectrics has developed a microprocessor-based LCD readout ground detector capable of detecting balanced and unbalanced faults. The Mk IV Ground Detector is suitable for use in the electric utility, telecommunications, transportation and other industries using similar battery systems.

Equipment operated from a floating (isolated from ground) battery system may fail or malfunction when the system wiring insulation level deteriorates, resulting in unacceptable and potentially damaging fault currents. In multiple battery systems, the interaction between systems makes ground fault detection difficult and confuses most detection schemes.

An effective solution

The result of four generations of development, Kinectrics state-of-the-art Mk IV Ground Detector features:

• LCD readout of fault resistance
• Independent +bus, -bus alarm set-points
• A "master/slave" function for multiple battery systems
• Instantaneous or delayed alarm output
• A self-check failure alarm

Kinectrics’ expertise

An established technical solutions provider to major North American utilities, Kinectrics has designed battery ground detectors for over 35 years. The Mk IV design has been proven effective in monitoring dc systems in nuclear, thermal and hydraulic generating stations as well as in electric distribution stations in over 500 Ontario Hydro applications.

The Kinectrics Fault Current Diverter ... fast reliable and safe protection against hazardous arcing faults

Modern utilities frequently have serious concerns related to higher fault levels and confined spaces. Where safety and damage control are key issues, Kinectrics' Fault Current Diverter offers a cost-effective, practical enhancement to ground out a fault, almost the instant it starts. Kinectrics' Fault Current Diverter is a simple, reliable device packaged in a container the size of a pop can, capable of carrying virtually any fault current. Retrofitted, it can provide absolute protection against electrically fuelled explosions.

The Fault Current Diverter shunts the fault current safely to the ground rather than trying to stop it; it collapses hazardous arcing by quickly grounding the circuit; it isolates the affected circuit from the system with upstream protection.

When electrically triggered, the Fault Current Diverter fires a special contact probe into a sacrificial cable stub, creating an absolutely arc-less ground connection, shunting fault current harmlessly away from any arc and instantaneously grounding the circuit out.

The Fault Current Diverter has been proven effective in extensive testing in both the lab and in the field.

For more information, contact

Daniel Fischer, 416.207.6000 x6756, daniel.fischer@kinectrics.com

Steve Cress, 416.207.6000 x6557, steve.cress@kinectrics.com