Protection and Control
SEL Engineering Services (ES) provides comprehensive power system protection and control solutions for utilities and industries worldwide.
By harnessing the advanced capabilities of SEL protective relays and automation controllers, SEL ES optimizes power system protection and control. We specify, design, implement, test, and commission solutions ranging from the highest-capacity generating facility to the remotest distribution feeder. SEL solutions safeguard valuable equipment, mitigate cyber threats and outages, and support compliance with safety and security standards.
Contact Us
We will schedule a time for you to talk with our experts about how we can meet your needs.
Our Services
SEL ES utilizes a deep understanding of the fundamental principles of electric power systems to create customized protection solutions for your system. We provide support for your project with protection scheme designs, relaying standards development, arc-flash studies, and fault, coordination, and selectivity studies.Our protection solutions offer complete primary and backup protection for all types of faults and offer the technology to mitigate expensive equipment damage and failures. The capabilities of SEL protective relays lay the foundation for safer, more reliable generation, transmission, distribution, and industrial systems. No matter where you are in the world, we will deliver the industry’s most advanced and dependable protection solutions, backed by the industry’s best product warranty and customer support.
SEL ES designs and commissions HMI, SCADA, and data integration solutions at any scale, from single substations to industrial facilities and wide-area grid operations. Our engineers collaborate with you to create a complete SCADA solution to fit your needs and help you increase grid stability and efficiency.SEL ES engineers help you incorporate SEL-5702 Synchrowave Operations software to complement traditional SCADA systems and energy management systems by delivering insights SCADA alone doesn’t provide. Synchrowave Operations works seamlessly with all SEL transmission protection devices to collect synchrophasor measurements and use the critical data for root-cause analysis and advanced diagnostics.Learn more about SCADA and HMI
SEL ES provides distribution automation control solutions that improve reliability metrics, reduce customer outages, and provide rapid fault detection and system restoration. Each of our relays is an automation-capable intelligent device. By coordinating their actions with secure communications and either our powerful Real-Time Automation Controllers (RTACs) or Blueframe application platform, we build automation solutions at lower operating costs with increased reliability, resiliency, and safety. Our custom modular solutions scale to fit virtually any need, so you can easily add capacity to your system as requirements change.SEL offers a highly intuitive Blueframe-based fault location, isolation, and service restoration (FLISR) solution as well as a highly-customizable RTAC-based FLISR solution called the Distribution Automation Controller. Both are autonomous solutions that use secure communications to observe, control, and coordinate switching devices throughout the system.With distribution automation engineered by SEL, you can:
- Improve reliability—Improve your system’s Customer Average Interruption Duration Index, System Average Interruption Frequency Index, and System Average Interruption Duration Index metrics.
- Mitigate outages—Isolate faulted sections, and quickly restore power to the rest of the distribution grid.
- Save time and money—SEL automation controllers collect advanced data from devices throughout the system, enabling predictive maintenance and helping prevent costly equipment failures.
SEL ES creates energy consumption reports, demand management systems, and power monitoring solutions for your system that decrease operating costs while increasing efficiency and uptime for both energy producers and consumers.SEL metering and demand management solutions include:
- Energy invoicing and reporting.
- Revenue and check metering.
- Power quality compliance reporting, including IEEE 519, IEEE 2800, and EN 50160.
- Peak demand reduction and peak shaving.
- Time-of-use-based energy optimization.
- Multisource control systems that maximize uptime.
- Database and reporting integration with SEL and third-party meters.
Let our global team of experts help you meet regulatory requirements that are relevant to your location. In North America, for example, we help clients manage the complexities of system protection coordination (NERC PRC-027). We also help clients monitor and control inverter-based resources in compliance with NERC PRC-028, -029, and -030.SEL ES provides professional compliance analysis, which includes reliability assessments, system studies and calculations, and event studies. Our focused teams review existing protection and control designs, relay settings, modeling data, and operational practices. Proposed solutions include risk identification and prioritization, mitigation options and deployment plans, compliance roadmaps, documentation, and training. We’re ready to help you navigate and comply with complex, ever-changing governing standards to mitigate regulatory risk, ensure personnel safety, and optimize system reliability.Learn more about compliance services
Detecting and de-energizing downed and broken power lines is a public safety responsibility and a crucial component of wildfire risk mitigation. A broken line falling to the ground can create a high-impedance fault (HIF) that is difficult to detect with traditional protective elements. SEL technologies reduce HIF risks and hazards in both transmission and distribution systems.SEL ES helps create or enhance a comprehensive wildfire mitigation system that minimizes the threat of electric power-induced fires. Detect a break and de-energize the falling line in midair to mitigate the risk of wildfires and improve public safety.Learn more about falling conductor mitigation
SEL Solutions in Action
Our Approach
SEL ES provides turnkey automation, protection, and wide-area control systems that are engineered to provide the specific functionalities you need to achieve your operational goals.We will collaborate with you to design and implement a broad set of functionalities or a subset that addresses your specific needs. Our scalable approach to protection and control allows you to add new capabilities as the demands on your system change over time.
All of our products are designed, tested, and manufactured in SEL-owned and -operated facilities in the United States.The SEL ES team follows rigorous engineering procedures for design, development, testing, and commissioning of electric power systems. We continually identify, monitor, and improve best practices to ensure your satisfaction.We practice secure supply chain management, including verified chains of custody, responsible sourcing, and keeping quantities of critical parts in reserve. Our quality management system is certified to ISO 9001 requirements.
SEL ES approaches all projects with an unwavering commitment to safety.Employees working in the field receive comprehensive safety training that includes real-world scenario exercises, hands-on performance, and thorough review from qualified individuals.We also integrate human performance improvement tools into our everyday work practices and have a comprehensive event reporting and investigation process to bolster safety procedures and promote awareness among employees.Learn more about safety and procedures.
Our Support
When you choose SEL, you get more than products and services—you get a partnership. Our customer support teams are experts in power system products and applications, and they’re available for the entire life of your SEL solution.SEL ES project engineers are ready to assist you in various project stages, from planning through final commissioning of the system. Afterward, ES teams around the globe will assist with any ongoing needs, and you have access to no-cost product support from highly skilled SEL application engineers.More about SEL quality and support
Every device we manufacture comes with free lifetime technical support. SEL application engineers are stationed around the world and are ready to provide support and expertise for virtually all power system applications. No matter how often you need to call or how long your SEL products have been in service, our customer service and technical support professionals are ready to help.
Security Bulletins and Updates
We notify product owners of updates and security patches for the full life of the product. We distribute software and firmware updates directly to our customers via a secure file transfer. The authenticity and integrity of the updates are verifiable through digital signatures and cryptographic hashes.More about security notificationsSEL provides complete cybersecurity support for every solution, system, and product we create.
Cybersecurity Bulletins and Updates
We thoroughly review and test the code in our products, which gives us greater control over their quality, security, and functionality. Customers are notified of updates and security patches for the full life of every SEL product.Cybersecurity Services and Support
From system assessment and baselining to cyber-defense solution development and ongoing system management, our full suite of security services can help strengthen your defenses and streamline the demands of maintenance and compliance.Cyber services support contracts include incident response, audits, system hardening, patch and update management, and more.SEL meets your workforce training and continuing-education needs through seminars, conference and tradeshow presentations, and SEL University courses.SEL University courses and many of our seminars provide Professional Development Hours (PDHs) for maintaining Professional Engineering licenses. Courses and seminars can be delivered in various formats, including self-paced online learning, virtual classrooms, live and recorded webinars, and in person.We can also work with you to develop training that is customized to the specific needs of your workforce.Training and Education offeringsSEL University CoursesConferences and TradeshowsSeminars and Webinars