Two teams are set to receive $50,000 for their ideas to automate protection systems testing for hydropower generators and other protective relays systems after being selected as the winners of the Automated Maintenance of Protection Systems prize competition.
The teams of Rahavi Brothers and Andrés Quintanilla were selected as the two top solutions in the competition. In addition, multiple benchmark awards were made for those solutions that showed the best innovations in certain areas. Rahavi Brothers will receive an additional $7,500 in awards, the team of Matthew Wolter and Jonathan Bliss will receive $40,000 and Multisequence Inc. will receive $2,500.
"The AMPS challenge is a great representation of Reclamation’s prize program where a problem was identified by operational staff, and our team crafted a competition to see if we could find a solution," said Research and Development Program Manager Ken Nowak. "The solutions selected will decrease the employee time required for testing, eliminate plant downtime for testing and increase plant safety and reliability."
Reclamation partnered with the Western Area Power Administration, Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Energy’s WaterPower Technologies Office, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, NASA Tournament Lab, Freelancer.com and Arrow Electronics on this prize competition.
