CT LAB

CT LAB Designer and Manufacturer of the VECTO System: Live, waveform synchronised, broadband, power quality-based grid monitoring system.

VECTO System: Solving operational, compliance & diagnostic challenges in power systems using a live, waveform synchronised, broadband, power quality-based grid monitoring system. The Electrical Grids around the world are facing a tsunami of change:
➡︎ Distributed, non-synchronous generation.
➡︎ Rapid load changes.
➡︎ Aging infrastructure.
➡︎ Negative pricing trends. How does centralized grid contr

ol translate to a distributed smart grid? Massive investments in discrete IED technologies lock them into centralized control, even as grids become more distributed and non-dispatchable. The data holds answers, but there’s no centralized, real-time, scalable big-data system, causing significant gaps for engineers and analysts, hindering cost-effective solutions. VECTO eliminates guesswork in power systems management, providing comprehensive data for grid management, engineering, finance, and Energy Market traders. VECTO sets the open standard for grid-wide, actionable Power Grid data.

Three days at AEW. One conversation kept repeating.The conversation was not about Class A as a credential. It was about ...
12/06/2026

Three days at AEW. One conversation kept repeating.

The conversation was not about Class A as a credential. It was about what conventional instrumentation actually shows you when something goes wrong — and what it does not.

The reference point most often raised was the Iberian event on 28 April 2025. ENTSO-E documented two pre-event oscillation periods leading into the cascade: a 0.63 Hz local oscillation between 12:03 and 12:08, classified by ENTSO-E as converter-driven instability primarily affecting the Spanish and Portuguese power systems, and a 0.2 Hz inter-area oscillation between 12:19 and 12:22 on the East-Centre-West continental mode.

Both sat within the conventional PMU detection envelope. ENTSO-E investigated using PMU phasor data at 100 ms sampling, ten samples per second. The phasor swings were visible. The macro-level symptom was visible. The technology did its job.

What the phasor data does not resolve is the inverter-control sub-cycle dynamics that ENTSO-E identified as underlying the converter-driven instability. The interactions between IBR control loops, harmonic injections, and the sub-synchronous response of the network — a layer of evidence beneath the phasor swing — sits at a different time resolution entirely.

This is the territory point-on-wave measurement was built for. VECTO's small signal stability algorithm concurrently identifies three ranges of dominant oscillation phasors between 0.1 Hz and 43 Hz: inter-area, local-area, and the 10 to 43 Hz IBR control-loop band. Underneath, 50 kHz GPS-synchronised synchrophasor waveform data with absolute time accuracy under 100 ns provides the raw signal a converter-driven event leaves behind before it reaches the phasor.

The conversations at AEW landed on the same place: phasor-grade visibility is necessary, and not sufficient.

Reference: ENTSO-E, Final Report on the Grid Incident in Spain and Portugal on 28 April 2025, published 20 March 2026.
See entsoe.eu/publications/blackout/28-april-2025-Iberian-blackout/.

AEMC has put the LV gap on the record.In the draft determination for ERC0410, Enhancing Distribution Network Planning an...
09/06/2026

AEMC has put the LV gap on the record.

In the draft determination for ERC0410, Enhancing Distribution Network Planning and Reporting (23 April 2026), the Commission wrote: "there is a lack of data for the low voltage distribution network (i.e. below the zone substation)."

The draft rule asks DNSPs to do four things differently:
∮ Publish a Distribution Network Development Plan every five years, against a 20-year planning horizon, in place of annual Distribution Annual Planning Reports.
∮ Align with AEMO's Inputs, Assumptions and Scenarios Report.
∮ Stand up a new data reporting framework under AER guidelines, with particular emphasis on the LV network.
∮ Identify network limitations and hosting capacity opportunities for Customer Energy Resources.

Submissions closed 4 June 2026 — five days before AEW opened, and the final determination is expected mid-2026.

If you run a DNSP planning function, the operational question becomes simple. The reporting obligation is moving from annual descriptive to five-yearly forward-looking with a structured LV data dimension underneath. The measurement layer that has been historically optional — feeder-head Class A, transformer-level monitoring, distribution-injection sensing — becomes the practical means of generating the network data the new framework expects DNSPs to plan against.

VECTO PQ NODE, is the deep-plant Class A instrument built for that layer. Above it, VECTO 3 covers the zone-substation tier. Above that, VECTO Grid OS aggregates the fleet for event detection and reporting workflow.

If you have an ERC0410 submission in flight, or are sitting on the question of what an LV-data framework actually requires of you, today is the day for it. Booth 14, 11 June, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Reference: AEMC, Enhancing Distribution Network Planning and Reporting, ERC0410 draft determination, 23 April 2026.

Day 1 of AEW is the transmission day.The conversations at Booth 14 today have all been the same shape. ERC0393 has chang...
08/06/2026

Day 1 of AEW is the transmission day.

The conversations at Booth 14 today have all been the same shape. ERC0393 has changed what a GPS negotiation looks like. S5.2.5.10 is no longer the abstract clause it was three years ago. Adequately Controlled is the new bar, and the evidence that demonstrates it has to come from somewhere.

The banner network diagram — seven network locations, seven bleeding-neck problems, four VECTO products. The visual cue that has been doing the most work today is the 10 to 43 Hz IBR control-loop band, sitting outside the practical and theoretical reach of conventional PMU detection.

Day 2 tomorrow shifts to distribution. ERC0410 submissions closed last week; the AEMC's draft determination is the conversation we're carrying into tomorrow. Different audience, same diagram.

AEW is in Melbourne. Some of you cannot make it.The direct CT LAB contact for the Australian channel and the VECTO produ...
06/06/2026

AEW is in Melbourne. Some of you cannot make it.

The direct CT LAB contact for the Australian channel and the VECTO product family is in country:
Michael Guy
+61 407 314 602
[email protected]

If you sit inside an IPP working a Generator Performance Standard for an IBR or BESS connection, or a DNSP preparing to use BPQD data from 1 July 2026 onward, the conversation does not need to wait for the show floor.

If you can make it to AEW, Booth 14 is where the VECTO family — VECTO 3, PQ NODE , VECTO TRANSIENT, and VECTO Grid OS — sits in one place. 9 to 12 June, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Register for AEW 2026 here: https://www.energyweek.com.au/register-for-free-expo-pass

Compliance evidence is a workflow, not a feature.AEMO's FCAS Verification Tool, user guide v6.2, sets the technical bar ...
03/06/2026

Compliance evidence is a workflow, not a feature.

AEMO's FCAS Verification Tool, user guide v6.2, sets the technical bar for any FCAS-providing asset: power flow at or under 50 ms, frequency uncertainty at or under 0.01 Hz for Very Fast FCAS, CSV input in a specified format that the tool ingests for AEMO Market Ancillary Service Specification compliance.

Two ways the bar gets met in practice.

The configurable-workflow path. An ION9000 or equivalent meter logs at the configured rate, exports CSV or COMTRADE, an engineer assembles the FCASVT-compatible file through ION Setup or PME, the asset operator submits.

The native-export path. VECTO 3 produces AEMO FCASVT-compatible CSV through the Contingency FCAS Metering module — directly, no transform, no shaping in a second tool. The Class A measurement layer underneath (IEC 61000-4-30 Edition 3.0, simultaneous P-class and M-class PMU, sub-100 ns sync) means the same instrument that runs the regulatory PQ measurement also produces the FCASVT submission.

The point is not that one path is right and the other is wrong. The point is that AEMO's compliance regime treats evidence-by-default differently from evidence-by-assembly. When 1 July 2026 lands and BPQD shifts the operator vernacular toward routine trading-interval voltage, current and phase data flowing through AEMO IDX, the workflow distinction stops being academic.

VECTO 3 plus VECTO Grid OS — the managed-fleet platform across 65+ customers and thousands of devices globally — closes the loop from field measurement to AEMO submission to fleet-wide event detection.

If FCAS compliance evidence is a recurring board-paper line item in your business, Booth 14 is where the workflow conversation lives. 9 to 12 June, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Register for AEW 2026 here: https://www.energyweek.com.au/register-for-free-expo-pass

Seven network locations. Seven bleeding-neck problems.We are building the booth banner at AEW 2026 around one diagram.It...
01/06/2026

Seven network locations. Seven bleeding-neck problems.

We are building the booth banner at AEW 2026 around one diagram.

It plots points across the network — transmission substation, primary distribution, deep-plant transformer, feeder head, BESS container, distribution-injection point, customer connection — against the measurement problems that bleed out at each of them.

Then it maps four VECTO products onto the matrix:
∮ VECTO 3 — substation-class Class A, IEC 61000-4-30 Edition 3.0, sub-100 ns time sync as standard hardware.
∮ VECTO PQ NODE — Deep-plant Class A for feeder-head, transformer and distribution-injection deployment.
∮ VECTO TRANSIENT — 5 MHz sampling, full raw-waveform storage, forensic event capture.
∮ VECTO Grid OS — managed-fleet platform across 65+ customers and thousands of devices globally.

The diagram does not tell you which product you need. It shows you which bleeding-neck problem lives where, and which multi-function VECTO measurement capabilities answers it.

If you read more network diagrams than slide decks, Booth 14 is where to find this one. 9 to 12 June, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Register for AEW 2026 here: https://www.energyweek.com.au/register-for-free-expo-pass

Some oscillations sit in a measurement blind spot.Between 2018 and 2021, AEMO documented oscillations in the West Murray...
31/05/2026

Some oscillations sit in a measurement blind spot.

Between 2018 and 2021, AEMO documented oscillations in the West Murray Zone — Episode 2 corpus-confirmed at 17 to 19 Hz, reaching 1.94% peak-to-peak at the Red Cliffs Terminal Station 220 kV bus. On 16 November 2021, 35 of 39 inverters at the suspected source plant tripped.

AEMO's own conclusion: in the absence of timestamped, synchronised high-speed measurement data, no root-cause attribution was possible.

That band is awkward. A 50 fps PMU stream has a Nyquist limit near 25 Hz, but conventional phasor-estimation bandwidth and accuracy often degrade well below that. A 17 to 19 Hz oscillation therefore sits in the grey zone: visible in RMS/phasor data, but not resolved with enough synchronised high-speed detail for source attribution in the data AEMO had.

AEMO closed that gap by commissioning a bespoke high-resolution monitor at the Red Cliffs Terminal Station 220 kV bus — the electrical centre of the zone — and AusNet installed equivalent monitoring at the Wemen terminal station. AEMO's public briefings document the instrument deployment without naming the brand. Industry attribution identifies the transmission-tier monitor as the CT LAB VECTO 3.

This is the territory VECTO's small signal stability algorithm was built for: concurrent identification of three ranges of dominant oscillation phasors between 0.1 Hz and 43 Hz. Inter-area at 0.1 to 1 Hz. Local-area at 1 to 10 Hz. And the 10 to 43 Hz band — control-loop interactions between Inverter-Based Resources — which is the load-bearing band conventional PMU-based detection does not reliably resolve.

If your system-strength portfolio includes IBR-heavy zones with intermittent oscillation events that current instruments are smearing, this is the conversation worth having at Booth 14, 9 to 12 June at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Reference: AEMO West Murray Zone oscillation briefing and oscillations programme.

Register for AEW 2026 here: https://www.energyweek.com.au/register-for-free-expo-pass

A regulated free floor lands 1 July 2026.Rule 2024 No. 20 (AEMC Final Rule, 28 November 2024) makes NER 7.16.6C live: Me...
28/05/2026

A regulated free floor lands 1 July 2026.

Rule 2024 No. 20 (AEMC Final Rule, 28 November 2024) makes NER 7.16.6C live: Metering Coordinators must deliver Basic Power Quality Data — average voltage, current magnitude, phase angle per phase, recorded at trading intervals — to Local Network Service Providers via AEMO IDX. At no direct charge.

BPQD covers eligible small-customer smart meters under the AEMO scope, excluding Type 4A and Type 8B small-generator meters. It is trading-interval-averaged magnitudes, not Class A continuous measurement — BPQD is a data-delivery obligation, not an access standard.

What it does do is shift the operator vernacular.

Once voltage, current and phase angle are sitting in every DNSP's grid management conversation, the next questions arrive on their own. ➧ Harmonic distortion at the PCC.
➧ Sub-cycle transients on the LV feeder.
➧ Sub-synchronous oscillations on the IBR-heavy zone.
➧ Multi-source attribution at shared connection points.

Those are the conversations that sit above the regulated floor. They are not free. They are the commercial premium layer.

CT LAB is at AEW 2026 with the VECTO family built for that layer:

☑︎ VECTO PQ NODE — Deep-plant Class A instrument for feeder-head, transformer, BESS container and distribution-injection deployment.

☑︎ VECTO 3 + Grid OS — substation-class Class A with simultaneous P-class and M-class PMU, native AEMO FCASVT export, fleet management across 65+ customers and thousands of devices globally.

If you run a DNSP grid management function or sit inside a Metering Coordinator preparing for 1 July 2026, Booth 14 is where the second conversation starts.

Register for AEW 2026 here: https://www.energyweek.com.au/register-for-free-expo-pass

ERC0393 just tightened the IBR rulebook.The AEMC's Final Rule (22 May 2025, commenced 21 August 2025) restructured gener...
27/05/2026

ERC0393 just tightened the IBR rulebook.

The AEMC's Final Rule (22 May 2025, commenced 21 August 2025) restructured generator access standards by plant type and sharpened IBR performance: positive-sequence reactive current response within 10 ms, rise time at or under 40 ms, "Adequately Controlled" replacing "Adequately Damped".

Two clauses do the load-bearing work for every new connection:
➧ S5.2.5.10 — trip-on-instability protection. Behaviour-based: disconnect when instability is detected.
➧ S5.2.5.2 — harmonic, flicker and voltage-unbalance emission limits, negotiated into the Generator Performance Standard at connection stage and re-tested over the asset life.

Class A measurement is not a mandated reporting regime under either clause. It is the voluntary best-practice tool that supports commissioning evidence and ongoing compliance monitoring as access-standard performance is re-tested over the asset life.

The asymmetry that matters for an IPP engineering lead: AER Tier 1 civil penalties attach to S5.2.5.x access-standard breaches at the indexed maximum for a body corporate — currently the greater of $11.06m, three times the benefit, or 10% of annual turnover under AER's penalty indexation (in force since 1 July 2023). The regulator has the hammer; the developer carries the evidentiary load.

This is the conversation we're hosting at AEW 2026.

VECTO 3 is the Class A architecture we built for it: IEC 61000-4-30 Edition 3.0 Class A, IEC 62053-22 Class 0.2S current and voltage accuracy, GPS plus IEEE 1588v2 PTP under 100 ns as standard hardware, simultaneous IEEE C37.118 P-class and M-class PMU.

Bring your GPS compliance question to Booth 14, 9 to 12 June, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

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