Siemens enhanced 3WA range of Sentron air circuit breakers

The company launched the complete range for low voltage applications with advanced protection technologies for distributed energy systems of the future.

Siemens Smart Infrastructure is enhancing its Sentron portfolio of air circuit breakers with the new 3WA series. Being an important element of low-voltage power distribution, the 3WA series protects electrical installations in buildings, infrastructure and industrial facilities from damage caused by overload, short circuits, or ground faults. 

Robert HK Demann, Head of Smart Infrastructure, Siemens Limited says, “While our customers continue to drive their core businesses, we support them as a ‘One-Stop-Shop’ sustainability partner through our 3Ds initiative (Decarbonisation, Decentralisation and Digitalisation). The new 3WA air circuit breakers are designed in line with this philosophy and our continued endeavour to keep the customer at the heart of product design.” 

“The key focus for installations of the future will be minimum downtime, advanced connectivity and energy transparency while ensuring data security,” said Chandrashekhar Shrotri, Head of Electrical Products, Siemens Limited. “Our new circuit breakers are well equipped to handle these requirements of the future. They feature some of the most advanced diagnostic, communication and cybersecurity features available today,” adds Shrotri.

The 3WA ACBs are designed to meet the growing requirements of digitalisation and connectivity as well as capable of easy integration into digital environments. It supports digital testing and monitoring, seamless integration into automation and IoT systems and also supports software-based planning and engineering. 

The 3WA series also brings in first-of-its-kind features like online digital upgrades. As and when the technological requirements change, it is easy to add new features to the electronic trip unit (ETU600) installed in the 3WA air circuit breakers using the Sentron “Powerconfig” commissioning software and a USB or communication port. The features are available online and are continually expanded by Siemens thereby ensuring the users save time and money with minimum downtime for upgrades.

Renewable sources provide a third of all energy generated worldwide. Wind and solar energy can cause the grid voltage to fluctuate, which in turn can lead to costly failures in industrial and building operations. The new 3WA circuit breakers can handle wide voltage fluctuation, thus reliably preventing false tripping and failures. It also features variants suitable for use upto 1150V AC for use in wind turbines and solar inverters. As active grid participants, infrastructure and industrial systems produce, store, and use their own energy or feed it into the grid. This requires technology capable of handling bidirectional power flows. The 3WA air circuit breakers are now able to automatically adapt their protection algorithms to the actual direction of flow, thus maximising the protection they offer for smart grid prosumers. 

Access to critical data like diagnostics and metering is as important as the protection features in today’s world The 3WA air circuit breaker hosts a wide range of connectivity options like USB-C, Bluetooth, etc. for easy access to data. Integrated communication and measuring functions capture energy data and transfer it to automation and IoT platforms as well as medium-voltage systems. Unique dual communication functionality makes it possible to use multiple communication protocols such as Profinet and Modbus TCP at the same time, allowing users to benefit from fast and powerful data transfers.  

To ensure that a critical component like ACB is protected from cyber-attacks the 3WA ACBs are also equipped with best-in-class cybersecurity features like IP whitelisting and signed security updates to ensure protection from new and evolving threats. The 3WA air circuit breakers are available in three sizes with nominal currents from 630 to 6,300 A for AC applications and short circuit breaking capacity upto 150kA complimented by an exhaustive range of accessories for every application.