| Today’s electrical networks, as part of the national power system, must meet a number of requirements imposed on power transmission and distribution equipment. The main requirements are: continuity of electricity supply to consumers, operational safety, quality of electricity supplied, development of networks, economic viability of investments, environmental impact requirements. In this context, the testing of the technical performance of the various elements that make up the electrical networks, both at the design stage and, in particular, at the certification stage, is of great importance and is regulated by internationally recognised technical standards and norms. The performance of tests under laboratory conditions requires the existence of specialised installations and equipment capable of generating the electrical parameters to which the various elements of electrical networks are subjected, for the purpose of performance testing and certification. The paper presents an installation for carrying out thermal tests on the current paths of electrical power equipment with a fully digital control system based on virtual instrumentation, which replaces the physical control panel made up of electronic modules and analogue devices. This enables the transition from primarily manual local control by the operator to remote control and eventually full automation of the thermal test process for medium and low voltage switchgear. By taking advantage of virtual instrumentation, the solution can be easily implemented and enhanced by integrating process control and computerisation applications. |
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