Sentient Energy, Inc.
Delivering Excellence to the Utility Industry

The utility sector is witnessing a rapid change. The energy departments are working toward updating the grid infrastructure to increase its reliability and resilience. The modernization of the grids bring forth challenges such as driving down operational costs, gaining operational awareness, preventing disruptions to the grid, implementing predictive analysis and more. Tackling these challenges is Sentient Energy, a leader in Distribution Line Monitors & Grid Analytics. Headquartered in California, the company offers a suite of solutions. Sentient Energy’s Grid Analytics System is based on their flagship, the MM3™, an intelligent oscilloscope with high-performance sensors featuring substation-class measurement, computing, and processing capabilities. The MM3s locally capture and process detailed data at many points along with the network and communicate specific alerts and analyses to SCADA or Ample™ Analytics modules for system-wide studies.

Sentient Energy is known for excellence in distribution line management and fault detection. The MM3™ line monitor is a smart sensor that provides rich operational data. The strategic placement of MM3s at primary switching points provides easier and quicker identification of fault locations that result in shorter outage durations. The MM3™ communicates where fault current is detected and uses an onboard LED to indicate the fault current detection. Utilities may choose to isolate outages further and pinpoint their location by using MM3s where patrolling is difficult or impossible. This will drastically decrease patrol time and thereby shorten outage durations by communicating fault information immediately to the SCADA or Distribution Management System.

The Sentient MM3™ line monitor configured with Log-I™ interval load logging application is a compelling solution for accurately monitoring load and other operational characteristics at any point on the grid. The solution is simple because of its non-disruptive installation and self-contained wireless communications capability. Substations without complete automation are ideal for monitoring using the MM3™ with Log-I application as it is an advanced interval data logging solution. The application accurately captures conductor load, temperature, and e-Field data at user-defined intervals from 5 seconds to 15 minutes. Sentient’s MM3 Line Monitor running the Log-I application continually measures current, temperature, and the electric field, giving the utility engineer critical information for planning and system analysis.

The Sentient MM3™ running the Waveform application is ideal for understanding network events such as momentary outage as it captures substation-class oscillography associated with faults and network events. The Waveform data is captured at 130 samples per cycle, exceeding the sampling rate of most substation-based equipment. The Waveform application uses proprietary, patent-pending algorithms to analyze the high-resolution data and precisely determine the real sub-cycle boundaries of all disturbances. This is the essential groundwork for further processing and analysis, and for allowing systematic comparison to known event libraries for diagnosis of the likely cause. Waveform’s high-sampling rate gives utility information on 1st through 11th harmonics. Harmonic content is measured, recorded and made available for analysis in Sentient’s Ample™ Analytics platform. Waveform data can be stored in Ample indefinitely for forensic studies of outages, device failures, and proactive maintenance analysis.

Sentient Energy has the world’s largest distribution grid line sensor deployments. The company is leading the way with innovative line sensors and software that put substation class measurement and analytics on the grid. Partnering with Silver Spring Networks, Sentient delivered the world’s first massive scale, RF Mesh-based line management system for fault detection, load monitoring, and grid analytics. Similarly, the company has partnered with top tier utilities to test underground sensors and has launched grid ignition source detection technologies. The innovative nature of the company will pave the way in the future.