Jan 23, 2018   SOURCE: BusinessWire

Sentient Energy Unveils World’s First Intelligent Sensor for Underground at DistribuTECH 2018

Sentient Energy, Inc., a leading provider of advanced grid monitoring and analytics for electric utilities, today unveiled the Sentient UM3+™, the first intelligent distribution grid monitor designed for underground deployment. The announcement was made at the DistribuTECH 2018 Conference and Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas. The Sentient’s UM3+™ extends to underground circuits the capabilities of Sentient’s Ample® Software, and MM3™ and ZM1™ overhead line monitors to detect, capture, analyze and communicate faults and non-fault disturbances over both AMI/DA mesh and cellular networks.

“Utilities need Intelligent sensing, control and analytics Networks (ISCAN) that cover the entire six million miles of the U.S. Distribution Grid -- both overhead and underground,” said Jim Keener, CEO of Sentient Energy. “The UM3+ is fully submersible and modular. Combined with Sentient’s Grid Analytics System, now for the first time, utilities have the ability to manage SAIFI, SAIDI and DERMS across their padmount, manhole and vault infrastructure.”

Sentient Energy’s UM3+ line monitor is equipped with sophisticated sensing and measurement capabilities including line and fault current measurement. It is extensible to electric field monitoring, water level, as well as NOX and CH4 detection in the underground vault. The UM3+ uses GPS for location and precise time stamping of all measurements.

“With underground circuits, faults are harder to locate and equipment is much more difficult and time consuming to access after a service disruption,” added Michael Bauer, President and Founder of Sentient Energy. “The UM3+ not only immediately pinpoints fault locations, it can identify anomalies that signal incipient failures and report them to Sentient’s Ample Grid Analytics Software. These disturbance statistics can direct line crews to make targeted repairs when actually needed, preempting outages and moving beyond outdated practices that rely on best-guess models not grounded in actual field measurements.”

Sentient Energy will showcase the UM3+ and its full line of intelligent grid sensors and analytics software at DistribuTECH booth #2953 through January 25th.

About Sentient Energy, Inc.

Sentient Energy makes power delivery safe, reliable and DER ready. The company provides the industry’s only Grid Analytics System that covers the entire distribution network with quickly deployed intelligent sensors and analytics that identify and analyze potential faults and other grid events. Sentient Energy leads the market with the largest mesh network line sensor deployments in North America, and partnerships with leading utility network providers including Silver Spring Networks, Landis + Gyr, Verizon and AT&T. For more information, visit www.sentient-energy.com.