Thermal Imaging: Tool for Securing & Monitoring Electrical Substations

Electrical substations face challenges from vandals, intruders, hazardous weather, and high energy demand. These unmanned, remote locations are difficult to protect from intrusion, theft, and sabotage, making them vulnerable points in the electricity grid. The utility sector is focused on addressing these issues to ensure an uninterrupted energy supply to residents and businesses. This requires monitoring for potential breaches and equipment dysfunction.

While monitoring is still largely manual, energy organizations seek ways to make it safer, more efficient, and actionable. Thermal imaging can support these efforts, providing continuous, accurate monitoring to improve security, safety, operational efficiency, and continuity.

Benefits of thermal imaging over visual cameras

Thermal imaging requires no light at all. Thermal cameras enable vision in complete darkness and function equally well during daylight hours, unlike visual cameras, which need reflective light. They detect temperature differences in heat energy emitted by objects and translate this into image details. Thermal imaging is accurate in pitch black, fog, and camouflage as on a sunny day.

As new sensors, materials, and improved calibration make thermal cameras more affordable, reliable, and versatile, thermal imaging is becoming increasingly available. Thermometric cameras can calibrate heat displays with numerical data and send alerts when temperatures deviate from the preset range, aiding operational efficiency by monitoring critical assets and equipment.

Thermal imaging improves operational efficiency.

Hand-held thermography cameras detect heat and provide a thermography readout of the energy emitted in substations. These checks occur at three- to six-month intervals. While hand-held measuring requires physical visits, a permanent thermometric camera offers an alternative by monitoring equipment day and night year-round.

Thermometric cameras can create alarms for rising temperatures and routinely check critical areas, providing a greater understanding of the situation. The 24/7 monitoring using thermal imaging helps catch developing problems before they worsen and become costlier. This early intervention positively impacts ROI. Thermometric cameras are essential for trend analysis, operational efficiency, and continuous monitoring to maintain substations and extract valuable operational data.

Thermal imaging boosts threat detection.

Due to their critical role, substations are subject to various threats, including cyber-related attacks. Cameras with built-in cybersecurity features help prevent hackers from infiltrating networks and disrupting processes. Other threats take the form of more physical intrusion, such as theft and sabotage.

Using thermal cameras to detect potential intruders provides more reliable detection and shape recognition compared to visual cameras. By combining high image contrast with motion detection, thermal cameras keep the false alarm rate down, with fewer unnecessary responses and actions.

Thermal cameras can help detect activity on and just outside the perimeter, day or night. The support in perimeter protection can play an important role in fence line solutions. This solution could consist of a thermal camera with an analytic detecting a potential intruder, which triggers a PTZ camera to have a look, give a good visual of the intruder, and track them. Audio deterrents like horn speakers or light deterrents like strobe sirens can also be added to tackle intrusion threats.

Using sound detection, devices can alert the security company of a potential attack on the site, enabling them to check the scene. Another rising threat is drones. Malicious individuals are increasingly using drones to monitor substations, deliver payloads, and cause substations to fail. Drone detection is done with partner hardware and software. As with a visual camera, a thermal camera can complement this by providing a drone view.

Substation security for safety

A greater focus on maintaining substations also means more monitoring of the site. Overheating increases fire and explosion risk; thermal imaging and thermometric cameras can monitor equipment. This improves safety by providing an overview of the state of the machinery before sending engineers on-site.

Thermal imaging also supports safety by detecting trespassers and triggering other devices in the security solution to deter any unwanted activity with audio and lights. Beyond security for the site and valuable assets, deterrence also protects the intruders. This is not limited to intruders with malicious intent but also trespassers such as kids or teenagers who enter your substation out of curiosity or simply not knowing any better. These trespassers otherwise risk being killed or seriously injured among the high-voltage equipment.

Building resiliency on-site

Failure of multiple substations in one area would create many societal and business operational problems. Building extra security layers into substation sites is critical to improving resilience to potential threats and issues. This is where thermal imaging can add the most value.

Thermal imaging is key to improving substations' maintenance, security, and safety by monitoring areas in and around the premises 24/7. The goal is to deter potential intruders and spot equipment anomalies early to avoid unexpected shutdowns or a cascading event. Thermal cameras can act as first responders to achieve this.

Written By - Vinay Vidyadharan KK – Manager West India – Axis Communications