Building reliability into crucial Austrian power corridor
In 2006 the Austrian utility, Verbund-Austrian Power Grid (APG), installed ABB’s PSGuard 850 WAMS (Wide Area Monitoring System) to oversee the power flow along a crucial and heavily loaded transmission corridor between the cities of Vienna and Ternitz, connecting northeastern and southern Austria.
The challenge for this corridor is that much of the 1,900MW of surplus power produced in the northeast is transferred to the south of the country, which has a deficit of 1,400MW, over three 220kV power lines which have a total capacity of 1,200MW.
Increased congestion restricts the flow of electricity and threatens the security of supply. Compounding the congestion is the gradual addition of another 1,000MW of electricity from wind generation in the northeast, as well as the closure of coal-fired power plants in the south, which is creating even greater demand for power from the north.
ABB’s WAMS solution stabilizes and protects the corridor in conjunction with three phase shifting transformers installed at critical nodes in the network. The system coordinates the operation of the phase-shifting transformers for maximum performance, line over- and underloads can be balanced, and losses caused by uncoordinated loop flows (inadvertent power losses as electricity is transmitted through the network) are also minimized. This helps APG to get the most use out of its existing transmission capacities, and at the same time significantly reduce the risk of a black-out caused by overloaded lines.
ABB has also installed monitoring systems for utilities around the world, including Swissgrid (ETRANS) in Switzerland; the Tennessee Valley Authority in the USA; Hrvatska Elektroprivreda in Croatia; Hellenic Transmission System Operator in Greece; Comisión Federal de Electricidad / Centro Nacional de Control de Energía in Mexico; Eskom in South Africa; Statnett in Norway; Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and Fingrid Oyj in Finland.
First IEC 61850-based substation automation solution in successful operation
In 2006, ABB’s first IEC 61850-based substation automation solution entered successful operation at EGL’s 380kV Laufenburg substation in Switzerland. The project was carried out as part of the Swiss utility’s general refurbishment of the substation - including five line bays, one transformer and one bus coupler and had to be performed during continuous operation within a highly critical time span.
ABB’s solution and migration scenario for the primary and secondary refurbishment was based on the feeder-by-feeder installation and commissioning of highly integrated gas insulated switchgear (GIS) on the primary side as well as new IEC 61850 compliant control and redundant protection equipment on the secondary side. This involved integration of a third-party Main 2 device, as well as communication to the existing station-level system via a gateway for protocol conversion.
Airport power supply secured for Beijing Olympics 2008
ABB has helped Beijing International Airport (BCIA) to secure a stable power supply for its new terminal 3 (T3) in readiness for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The project, covering one 110kV substation and more than 50 10kV switching stations, included over 940 sets of REX 521 terminals. These provide multi-functionality – including protection, control, metering and monitoring within the same terminal – for the 10kV feeders and 10kV transformers to meet all protection requirements. Remote monitoring and control enables BCIA to speed up fault analysis and clearance should a network fault occur.
Weaving a power control web for London Underground
The London Underground (LU) power supply system is kept under continuous control by control room engineers and operators. They are responsible for the safe and reliable operation of a 22kV sub-transmission system with load delivered via an 11kV system to 158 delivery points. Local transformer rectifiers provide 630VDC for the train motive power, as well as lower-voltage supplies for auxiliary services such as signalling, lighting and ventilation. The DC supply is switched off at night, to allow track maintenance work to be carried out safely while trains are not running, and this typically results in over 500 switching operations each day.
In August 1998, LU signed a 30-year, £1 billion Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract with EDF Energy Powerlink – a consortium jointly owned by EDF Energy, Balfour Beatty and ABB – to operate, maintain, finance and renew the Underground’s high-voltage power supply system. One of ABB’s main roles has been the design, installation and commissioning of a new integrated, high-performance, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) SPIDER system. It provides overall control of the power distribution network for four out of
seven LU regions (Eastern, Western, Victoria and Metropolitan) as well as the primary 22kV distribution network. It replaces six previous SCADA systems that were either at the end of their working life or were temporary installations.
The SPIDER SCADA system is fully integrated with LU’s communications system. Control of the network is centralized in two replicated command centres (main and emergency), with dual application servers interconnected by a high-speed fibre-optic communications link.
Remote terminal units (RTUs) provide the local interface with the power network equipment (transformers, switchgear, SVCs and so on), and they are linked into the SCADA system by copper lines converging on six data concentrators. One of the key technical challenges in the project was in developing the protocol conversion software that enabled the legacy RTUs to communicate with the new SCADA system.
The SPIDER system has proved its capability to ensure a high level of power availability to meet LU’s stringent operating targets. In particular, greater visibility of the power system enables any issue to be flagged and identified, so that early action can be taken to prevent it escalating into a fault.
Breakthrough for generator protection schemes in France
ABB is pioneering multi-functional generator and transformer protection, and has now won the largest protection project of this kind to date using REG 670 devices. Over the next eight years, these will be retrofitted to 28 generator and transformer protection systems in seven of EDF’s 900MW nuclear power plants in France.
Protection schemes, each comprising three REG 670 devices, will replace the original GSX5b protection systems supplied by ABB in the 1970s. It was EDF’s satisfaction with their long and reliable operation that enabled ABB to win this upgrade project.
The enhanced schemes will provide duplication in hardware and functionality – a significant gain in operational safety. They will also help to prolong the service life of the generators and transformers, raising productivity and availability and ensuring continuous, optimal power delivery.
Substation automation for Mumbai oil refinery
ABB has completed a major contract for the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) to supply substation automation systems for 6.6kV and 415V substations for the expansion of an oil refinery in Mumbai, India.
The ABB solution is based on the verified implementation of IEC 61850 and includes nearly 500 terminals and relays. High availability is ensured by full redundancy at the station level. For maximum performance and security, physically separated communication networks have been implemented for the substations.
MicroSCADA for KOGAS, Korea
ABB has supplied MicroSCADA substation automation systems comprising 12 communications servers and over 600 IEDS to the Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) as part of the extension to LNG terminals at Tongyoung and Pyungtaek. The ABB systems provide reliable control for internal power systems ranging from 115V to 154kV, and collect extensive information about disturbances on the network.
The ABB substation automation approach has ensured a simpler protection and control system solution for KOGAS that has eliminated the need for separate Remote Terminal Units (RTUs). It is now easy to identify the causes of faults and to take the correct, rapid action to correct them. This has helped to reduce the overall plant interruption time.
Successful RED 670 trial with National Grid
In 2007 ABB completed a successful nine month site trial with National Grid in which the GPS-based RED 670 line differential protection IED was installed on 400kV substation circuits in North Wales. The extended trial demonstrated the RED 670’s capabilities in a realistic ‘in-service’ environment, without exposing the power system to undue risk.
RED 670 devices were installed in a three ended 400kV substation circuit between Trawsfynydd, Legacy and Deeside. They were connected alongside the existing protection systems where they were subjected to the same working environment and fed the same live input data. The only difference from a fully live installation was that the RED 670 devices didn’t perform any actual tripping. Instead, their outputs were monitored to check that they were analysing the data correctly and making the right decisions.
As well as mimicking the behaviour of the existing site protection systems, the RED 670 devices were subjected periodically to additional tests to monitor their stability under abnormal conditions. This involved planned route switching of the communications channels and simulation of the loss of the GPS signal, both individually and simultaneously. There were also times when the devices were subjected to unplanned communications interference. They performed appropriately under these circumstances and then even better when the problem was resolved.
Near the end of the test programme there was a lightning strike that created a transient primary fault on the overhead line close to Trawsfynydd. This type of event causes a lot of different things to happen very quickly on a network, especially a large, sudden increase in current. The RED 670 responded perfectly, providing exactly the right switching response.