The Platform

GridON develops and produces The Keeper, a Fault Current Limiter (FCL) platform of solutions engineered to protect electrical distribution and transmission networks across multiple voltages. The Keeper is a simple, transformer-like platform that allows for continual uninterrupted operation, while preventing fault currents from propagating through the network and thus prevents power failures, disruptions and outages. It also facilitates the connection of intermittent sources of power such as wind and photovoltaic farms, to the grid.

Since its infancy, the power industry has sought the means to balance between connectivity and safety. Each power source, or sub-network added to the grid, increases the operational flexibility, but at the same time, magnifies the probability of uncontrollable fault currents. The integrity of the electrical grid, and its ability to ensure reliable, consistent and efficient flow of electrical power, depends on how well it is protected against potentially disastrous fault currents.

The Keeper which has been in development in the past 8 years and is based on rich intellectual property background rooted in the world of academic research at Bar-Ilan University and Ricor Ltd. in Israel, provides a cutting-edge, simple, yet highly effective solution to the problems created by the ever-increasing demand for efficient and reliable distribution and transmission of electrical power.

Operating Principles

The Keeper is virtually transparent to the grid during normal operation, instantaneously turning itself into a very high impedance device upon current surges. It limits the current for as long as required to clear the fault, and recovers immediately thereafter; protecting from multiple faults occurring in succession. Other devices attempt the same feat, but only The Keeper, with its unique patented design, requires relatively small DC-bias coil with limited Ampere-turns and can therefore saturate the core with either standard copper or superconductive coils.

The simplicity and hence, resiliency of The Keeper’s design, facilitates its integration in existing networks without changes to its architecture and by passes earlier solutions that been bulky and expensive with a yet-to-be proven value proposition to the network operator.

GridON’s competitive advantage lies in its unique, simple and compact design which achieves effective current limiting, without the key constraints that hinder further development of competing designs, i.e., superconducting/cryogenics, magnetic coupling and overheating.

The Keeper platform caters to specific network needs, offering single-phase and 3-phase current limiting systems. For 3-phase solutions, GridON is offering either its 3-phase, single-core device or three single-phase system.
Not only does The Keeper suppress fault currents on medium and high voltage grids, but it also allows for current regulation and reactive power balancing. Utilizing the non-linear magnetic characteristics of iron core The Keeper’s fully magnetized (saturated) iron core instantaneously gets out of saturation upon fault conditions and has the flexibility to increase its impedance automatically according to the need of protecting the grid against very high prospective fault currents.

The Keeper’s manufacturing technology which borrows from standard transformer manufacturing practices is more compact, simpler and less expensive to manufacture, while offering superior performance. This fail-safe, highly reliable current limiting device does not entail reactive losses and voltage drops, offering the most cost-effective commercial solution for mid-to-high voltage networks.

If you would like to learn more about The Keeper, please fill in this form and submit it to us. We will respond promptly with a Request for Information (RFI).