The professionals of TATNEFT were able to effectively handle the problems related to short circuiting through application of a microprocessor base controller, which automatically detects the damage zone. Testing of new device was carried out at substation No. 36 of NGDU Almetyevneft.

A single-phase ground fault is one of the most common types of failures in the networks that supply electricity to oil production facilities. With the new engineering development an operator can immediately identify, which particular feeder line has short-circuited to the ground, and send a team to the specific site of failure in order to fix it. This significantly reduces the feeder downtime. The efficiency and selectivity of determining the specific site of failure allows enhancing the reliability of oil production facilities power supply, personnel life safety and maintaining the life of electrical equipment operating.

Microprocessor, which selectively determines the site with a single-phase short circuit to ground occured, operates on the basis of a continuously changing set of dynamic parameters. This device was developed by OOO STC Mechanotronics from St. Petersburg. The plans envisage application of the controller’s functional capabilities for solving a wide range of tasks for the diagnosis of electrical equipment, such as identification of the exact fault location of overhead lines and others.

A program of introducing new devices at all substations of TATNEFT will be scheduled in the nearest future.