Current measurement simplified

Traditionally, measuring electrical current and high voltages requires current transducers that weigh as much as 2,000 kg and can take weeks to install.

Installation and commissioning in those applications is intricate and time consuming because the transducers often require a magnetic field analysis and sophisticated magnetic centering, and are prone to electromagnetic interference and interference from nearby bus bars.

Now ABB has put an end to that with the introduction of a new high direct current (DC) measurement system that weighs just 20 kilograms, takes four hours to install, improves accuracy over traditional approaches by a factor of 10 and is immune to electromagnetic interference.

Designed for high-voltage substations and the electrochemical industries (aluminium, copper, magnesium, zinc, steel and chlorine), ABB’s fibre-optic current sensor (FOCS) measures currents of up to 500 kA while maintaining better than 99.9% accuracy over a large current range and at temperatures of between -40° C and 80° C.