November 28, 2007
S&C’s High-Reliability Distribution System Improves Reliability on University Campus.
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) is in the midst of a major capital building program designed to keep the campus infrastructure up to world-class standard — including their electrical infrastructure. The age and condition of the existing electrical systems, as well as limitations with the current design, led UCSB to develop a plan to replace the existing electrical distribution system with a system that is modular and takes advantage of automation technology for a high level of reliability.
As part of this change, the master plan included the use of S&C’s High-Reliability Distribution System (HRDS). Rather than offering simple switching and standard building feeder protection, the HRDS switches automatically sense cable failures within campus loops and isolate faulted-cable sections with virtually no impact on building loads. The October 2007 issue of Transmission and Distribution World features an article on the new electric distribution system at UCSB.