Vladimir Shikhantsov, a graduate of School of Power Engineering of INRTU, is a prize-winner of the national competition of graduation papers organized by ETMC Exponenta

Vladimir Shikhantsov, a graduate of School of Power Engineering of INRTU, took the third place at the national competition of graduation papers organized by ETMC Exponenta. Denis Fedosov, Head of the Department of Electric Power Plants, Networks and Systems, is the scientific supervisor of the student.

Engineering Technologies and Modeling Center (ETMC) Exponenta was created to assist engineers in mastering advanced tools, technologies for developing complex systems and algorithms. More than 70 graduates from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Tomsk and Yekaterinburg participated in the competition organized in seven nominations.

The graduation thesis of INRTU student was presented in the nomination "Development and Improvement of Relay Protection and Automation Algorithms". Vladimir Shikhantsov devoted his graduation project to the creation of a prototype of short-circuits protection of electrical equipment.

Vladimir Shikhantsov began to study this subject in the third year. At the first stage, as part of the project team, he modeled differential protection of a power transformer, developed a protection model with the least number of malfunctions.

Vladimir Shikhantsov said,

"The project is relevant due to the increasing number of cases of inaccurate operation of differential protections in transition modes. An example of this is the accident at Rostov Nuclear Power Plant, which happened in 2014 as a result of saturation of current transformers.

Our prototype is based on an embedded controller, equipped with a logic circuit that we developed in the LabVIEW software product. We conducted a series of tests of the device in different conditions."

During the preparation of the graduation project, the INRTU student revealed the efficiency of the modified differential protection algorithms, applied improvements capable to eliminate malfunctions. In addition, the device functions correctly in normal load mode and reacts reliably to internal short circuits.

According to Denis Fedosov, Vladimir was offered to write his thesis on this topic as one of the most capable and responsible students:

"The prize-winning place in the national competition shows the relevance and practical value of his thesis and scientific direction in general. Therefore, research in this area will be continued".

Vladimir Shikhantsov graduated from INRTU with a diploma with honors. Currently, he studies at a master's degree program at the School of Power Engineering and works at the energy company.

The thesis of the INRTU graduate was also highly appreciated at the National competition of the final qualification papers on electric power engineering and electrical engineering. Vladimir Shikhantsov is a finalist of the large-scale competition. He will present his project in October in Moscow.