Circuit breakers are used in a power system to break or make current flow through
power system apparatus. Reliable operation of circuit breakers is very important to the
well-being of the power system. Historically this is achieved by regular inspection and
maintenance of the circuit breakers. An automated online circuit breaker monitoring
system is proposed to monitor condition, operation and status of high and medium
voltage circuit breakers. By tracking equipment condition, this system could be used to
perform maintenance only when it is needed. This could decrease overall maintenance
cost and increase equipment reliability. Using high accurate time synchronization, this
system should enable development of system-wide applications that utilize the data
recorded by the system. This makes possible tracking sequence of events and making
conclusions about their effect on-line. This solution also enables reliable topology
analysis, which can be used to improve power flow analysis, state estimation and alarm
processing
