As a medium voltage (MV) switchgear supplier, I get this question more often than you’d expect: “Can medium voltage switchgear be remotely controlled?” It’s a fair one too—for years, MV switchgear was seen as a big, heavy, piece of static hardware that you had to visit a substation to operate. But the energy landscape shifted fast, especially in the last decade. Utilities, industrial facilities, and renewable energy operators don’t want to send a crew out in the middle of the night to flip a switch when a fault hits, or monitor equipment 24/7 from a central control room. Let’s break this down, not from a textbook, but from the perspective of someone who’s worked with MV gear for 12 years, installed hundreds of units across North America, and fielded every question from “can I remote start a generator tied to my switchgear?” to “what if the Wi-Fi cuts out mid-operation?” Medium Voltage Switchgear
First, let’s get the basics right. Medium voltage is any voltage between 1kV and 35kV, right? It’s the backbone of distribution networks—powering neighborhoods, industrial plants, wind farms, data centers. Traditional MV switchgear has always had local controls: a big handle you crank, push buttons on the cabinet door, a lockout/tagout setup that requires someone physically present to work on. That local control is still non-negotiable, by the way. You never fully replace local operation; you add remote control as a complementary tool. It’s not an either/or, it’s a both/and. That’s a key point I see a lot of suppliers miss when pitching “smart” switchgear—they act like local controls are obsolete, but safety standards (like NFPA 70E, the big one for electrical safety) still mandate that personnel working on gear have local means to open circuits.
So how does remote control actually work? Let’s walk through it. Modern MV switchgear has what’s called a “remote control module” or RCM—this is a small, factory-installed (or retrofittable) component that mounts inside the gear cabinet, usually connected to the circuit breaker’s operating mechanism. The RCM takes commands from a remote host—could be a utility’s SCADA system (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), an industrial plant’s energy management system (EMS), or even a cloud-based monitoring platform. When a command comes in, the RCM sends a signal to the breaker: close, open, trip. That signal isn’t just a simple on/off; it’s a secure, encrypted command, which is non-negotiable for safety. You don’t want some random signal flipping a switch from someone’s living room.
Wait, but can all MV switchgear be retrofitted? That’s a question I get a lot from older facilities that don’t want to rip out perfectly good switchgear to get remote capability. The short answer is mostly yes, as long as the existing gear is less than 25 years old, and from a reputable manufacturer. We’ve retrofitted remote control modules on 15kV and 25kV switchgear from brands that stopped making gear in the 1990s, as long as the breaker’s operating mechanism is still functional. For gear that’s older than that, or if the mechanism is worn out, replacement is the more cost-effective long-term move, because retrofitting old, worn gear often leads to more downtime down the line. I always tell customers: if your gear is already at the point where it needs repairs every 2-3 years, it’s time to upgrade with remote capability built in.
Now, the safety part—this is where a lot of people get nervous. Can you remotely control MV switchgear without someone getting hurt? Let’s go back to standards. The IEC 62271-102 standard specifically covers remote operation of high and medium voltage switchgear, and it has strict requirements. For example, before a remote close command is sent, the system has to verify that all interlocks are engaged. Interlocks are those little mechanical or electrical features that prevent you from closing a breaker if the earthing switch is still closed, or if the cabinet door is open. The remote control system has to check those interlocks automatically before sending the command. If any interlock is breached, the command gets rejected. We build that into every smart switchgear we sell. Last year, we had a customer in Texas who had a crew working on a substation over a holiday weekend. The remote system flagged that the low-voltage compartment door was ajar before a scheduled test, so it blocked the remote close command, and the crew fixed the door before the test. No downtime, no safety incident. That’s the value of remote control.
What about reliability? What if the power goes out at the substation, or the network connection drops? Let’s break that down. First, modern remote control systems for MV switchgear have local backup power. Most of our units have a small, maintenance-free lithium-ion battery pack that can power the remote module and breaker operations for up to 72 hours, even if the substation’s main power is down. Second, the communication layer can be layered—we usually recommend a combination of wired Ethernet (for critical substations, where reliability is top priority) and cellular LTE-M or 5G (for remote sites, like wind farms, that don’t have fiber). If the fiber line gets cut, the system switches automatically to cellular, with built-in redundancy. We once had a wind farm in Oklahoma that had a fiber cut during a storm, and the remote control system switched to cellular in 0.2 seconds—no interruption to power, no need for a crew to drive 45 minutes to the site to switch breakers. That’s a big win for sites that are in rural areas, where access is hard.
I’ll also be honest: remote control isn’t right for every application. If you have a small commercial building with a single 12kV switchgear unit that only operates once a year, the cost of adding remote control might not make sense. The payback period for remote capability is usually 2-5 years, depending on how much you’d spend on crew travel, overtime, and downtime for outages. For a large utility with 500 substations, that payback is way faster—sending a crew to a substation 100 miles away costs thousands of dollars, and if you can do that remotely, those savings add up fast. For industrial plants that run 24/7, like chemical facilities or data centers, remote control is almost a requirement now, because any unplanned outage costs them tens of thousands of dollars an hour.
Another common myth: remote control means you don’t need field technicians. That’s not true at all. Remote control handles routine operations—opening a breaker for a scheduled maintenance, closing a breaker after a minor outage, monitoring temperatures and load levels. But when there’s a fault, like a bus bar overheating or a breaker that trips and won’t reset, you still need a technician on site to diagnose and fix the hardware. Remote monitoring just gives you a heads-up before a fault happens, so you can schedule maintenance during off-peak hours instead of dealing with an unplanned outage. For example, last month, a customer in Ohio used our switchgear’s remote monitoring feature to see that a circuit breaker was running at 95% of its rated load, which was causing excess heat. They scheduled maintenance during a weekend when demand was low, instead of having the breaker trip during peak weekday hours, which would have disrupted their production line.
What about cybersecurity? That’s a big one now, right? Everyone’s talking about grid cyberattacks, so can someone hack into your remote switchgear system? The short answer is that it’s possible if you don’t build the system right, but if you follow industry standards, it’s extremely low risk. All of our remote control modules use end-to-end AES-256 encryption for commands and data, so no one can intercept or alter a command. We also build in role-based access control—only authorized personnel can send remote commands, and every command is logged with a timestamp, user ID, and location. So if there’s an issue, you can track exactly who sent a command, when, and from where. We also do annual cybersecurity audits on all our smart switchgear systems, and we update the firmware remotely to patch any vulnerabilities, no need to send a technician to every site.
Let me tell you about a project we did two years ago to make this real. We worked with a municipal utility in Minnesota that had 12 aging substations spread across a 2,000 square mile area. Before, they had to send a crew of two technicians out to each substation every time they needed to switch feeders for maintenance—each trip took 3 hours, cost around $800, and they had to pull the crew away from other work. We upgraded their substations with MV switchgear that had remote control and monitoring capability. Now, they can schedule feeder switches from their central control room in 10 minutes, no travel required. In the first year after installation, they reduced their crew travel time by 70%, and unplanned outage time dropped by 35%. That’s the kind of concrete result that makes remote control worth investing in.
So to circle back to the original question: Can medium voltage switchgear be remotely controlled? Yes, it can, and it’s not just a fancy new feature—it’s a proven, safe, reliable technology that’s become standard for new MV switchgear installations, and it’s available for retrofits on most existing gear. But it’s not a “set it and forget it” solution, and it’s not for every application. It works best when paired with local controls, layered communication, and strict adherence to safety and cybersecurity standards.
If you’re thinking about upgrading your MV switchgear or adding remote control capability to your existing units, I’d encourage you to connect with us. We don’t do one-size-fits-all solutions—we’ll walk through your specific site, your operational needs, and your budget to figure out what works for you. Whether you’re a utility looking to reduce outage time, an industrial plant wanting to cut maintenance costs, or a renewable operator with remote sites, we can help you navigate the options.
Substation References:
- International Electrotechnical Commission. IEC 62271-102: High-voltage switchgear and controlgear – Part 102: Alternating current circuit-breakers. 2020.
- National Fire Protection Association. NFPA 70E: Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace. 2021.
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEE C37.20.2: Standard for Metal-Clad Switchgear. 2017.
- International Council on Large Electric Systems. CIGRE Technical Brochure 763: Remote Operation of Medium Voltage Switchgear: Safety, Reliability, and Implementation. 2019.
Deepwill International Technology Development (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd.
Deepwill International Technology Development (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. is one of the most professional medium voltage switchgear manufacturers and suppliers in China, featured by quality products and good price. Please rest assured to buy medium voltage switchgear for sale here from our factory. Contact us for OEM service.
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