CAM-345

A trail of oil under the transformer

Midday at a substation by the roadside. There is nobody inside: there almost never is. A dark, shiny stain runs down from the base of the transformer, across the concrete pad and into the gravel. It was not there this morning. The oil in a transformer is what cools and insulates the machine; when it shows up on the ground, it is leaving somewhere. And nobody will see it until the next visit.

CAM-345 · SUBSTATION YARD · OIL ON GROUND

What IRIS understands

What it recognises in this scene

trail of oil on the ground
power transformer
gravel bed
switching cabinet
yard switchgear

What this camera measures

An alert says something is happening. The reading says how much.

2 h 10 minStain on the ground for
11:20First frame with the stain
3Paving slabs the trail has reached
0People inside the compound right now
9Days since anyone was last seen here

The figures on this screen are an example from the illustration, not any client's measurement.

The rule

You decide once. IRIS applies it always.

a dark stain appears under a transformer that was not in the earlier pictures and is still there a few minutes later

Then

alert the control room with the camera, the time and the picture of the ground
keep the first frame in which the stain appears
attach yesterday's frame from the same view so the two can be compared

The instruction that set it up«Tell me if a dark stain shows up on the ground under any transformer and it was not there in the earlier pictures.»

What changes

What changes for whoever answers for the plant

A substation has no staff: it gets visited. Weeks can pass between visits, and a slow leak has all that time to drain the machine and reach the ground. With a camera watching, the trail stops being something the next maintenance round finds and becomes an alert today, with the time and the picture. The network manager decides whether to send someone this afternoon or add it to Thursday's round. But now the decision is made looking at it.

What people usually ask

Does IRIS know whether what is on the ground is oil?

Not for certain, and it will not pretend otherwise. What the camera sees is a dark stain that was not there before, underneath a machine that holds oil. That is enough to send somebody to look. Confirming which liquid it is, and whether it comes from the transformer or from somewhere else, is for the person who goes and, if needed, for a lab test. IRIS supplies the alert, the time and the picture.

Do you need a special camera to see this?

No. The camera that is already there will do. A stain on the ground shows up in daylight, and at night with the yard lighting or a night camera. A thermal camera is useful for something else: reading heat build-up on a piece of equipment before there is any smoke. IRIS works with both, and it does not change what each camera can see.

What if it is rainwater or a shadow?

It happens, which is why the rule waits. IRIS compares with the same view from before and only raises the alert if the stain is still there a few minutes later and does not match what rain leaves across the whole yard at once. Even then, the one who decides whether it is a leak is the person looking at the picture. IRIS does not close the case: it opens it with evidence.

Other cameras

A different case every time

No extra alarms here. Just what needs looking at.

Not a recorded video, not an explanatory drawing: a summary of the real screen, with a different case every time it starts. There is a lot more behind it.