Are there date-sensitive embedded chips in neighborhood transformers?

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I have been told or read somewhere that there are 2 types of date-sensitive (embedded) chips in transformers in each of our neighborhoods. My question is: Are these chips date-sensitive enough to "shutdown" electricity from the transformer to the homes (provided the utility can produce electricity), or can the utility company "re-set" or "re-route" the transformers to have business as usual?

-- Anonymous, October 16, 1998

Answers

Winston, From my research I've been told that substation transformers generally have transformer temerature and current sensing equipment that is frequently date sensitve. They are not resettable from any central location as they will simply generate another error signal the next time they report or record the date-stamped information. Going around (ignoring) the error signal would mean running the equipment with no safety system in place to prevent over-temp or over current conditions. The only fix I've heard of is to replace the embedded chip that runs the sensor modules with one that is y2k compliant. I believe I read a post here on this site where the contributor explained the role of the y2k bug on tranformer overtemp sensors Hope this helped Keith

-- Anonymous, October 20, 1998

Your neighborhood transformers are dumb copper and steel. Major substation transformers(69kV and up) may have several alarm conditions monitored and reported into the Utility's SCADA system. It is usually up to a System Dispatcher to respond to these alarms. Major alarms may be connected to protective relays which could automatically isolate the transformer from the system. The sensors themselves are dumb. The relays can be dumb or smart. Most utilities are testing their relays at this time.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 1998

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