Mexican energy company Prolec and Florida-based Ubicquia, an innovator in intelligent utility infrastructure, are building what they claim to be the industry’s first fully integrated smart transformer.

The transformers can deliver real-time monitoring and grid analytics. Units have begun shipping to North American utilities for field trials.

The companies collaborated to integrate Ubicquia’s UbiGrid DTM+ distribution transformer monitoring platform into Prolec’s single-phase pad mount transformers across a wide range of sizes. The integration, testing and certification is performed in Prolec’s Monterrey, Mexico, facility, one of the largest distribution transformer manufacturing facilities in North America.

The DTM+ platform provides real-time electrical and physical transformer health data along with grid analytics deployed at scale. Ubicquia has delivered more than 30,000 units to monitor single- and three-phase transformers to utilities across the USA and Latin America.

Prolec’s customers can now receive transformers pre-equipped with the intelligence needed for proactive transformer, grid and supply chain intelligence. By integrating the DTM+ into its transformers, Prolec eliminates the need for utilities to retrofit units in the field and reduces the total cost for a smart transformer.

The initial use cases include: predicting transformer outages to improve reliability; detecting and diagnosing issues with failed assets to optimise field resources and improve storm response; improving capacity planning, which has become more complex with the growth in electric vehicles, supply chain constraints and distributed energy generation; and providing additional resilience for industrial and critical loads.

Commercial availability of the intelligent transformer is planned for 2024.

“This is a significant step forward in the evolution of transformers,” said Ricardo Suarez, CEO of Prolec. “We are thrilled to partner with Ubicquia and shape the future of smart energy.”

Ian Aaron, CEO of Ubicquia, added: “Our partnership with Prolec is a vision coming to life. By delivering smart transformers from the factory at scale, we are enabling a new age of grid analytics, and we are just getting started.”

Founded over 50 years ago, Prolec (www.prolec.energy) has six manufacturing facilities in Mexico, USA and Brazil.

Ubicquia (www.ubicquia.com) produces smart grid products that attach to existing distribution transformers in minutes, providing predictive analytics that make the grid more resilient.