"Some utilities have trial installations with sensors connected to their electromechanical relay signals," said Alan Grightmire, group vice president of substation automation at ABB Inc. (Zurich, Switzerland). "This is driven primarily by the growing need for much more information to properly diagnose and manage crucial assets that they cannot afford to abandon."Despite the fact that solutions like this presently satisfy several of the local Distance Relay Power
for data evaluation, there is an rising trend amongst utilities toward preparing for system-wide upgrades to intelligent relays and automation for their substations to totally meet their future information requirements. ABB's ability to retrofit existing substations and install new substation automation technologies can be a a part of ABB's Sensible Grid offering.Steve Kunsman, group assistant vice president of global product management at ABB Inc., place it this way:
"Every utility is moving forward into the intelligent substation at its own pace, and all are coping with multigenerational electronics, sensors, monitors and apparatus discovered in their substations."Huge modernization projects are done in phases, typically more than several years, to lessen disrupting service and to accommodate the utility's price range. "ABB uses a modular design method for retrofit projects exactly where old equipment is removed and replaced," Kunsman explained. "The more you replace old equipment, the far more sense it tends to make to work with modular designs."Modularization gives the benefit of the Breaker Failure Protection
, which saves installation time, reduces the number of spare components required, keeps maintenance easy and lowers expenses.
Consolidated Edison Company of New York (New York, New York, U.S.) has selected ABB to replace 1970 vintage RTUs in 39 Con Edison substations with ABB's RTU 560. The retrofit will also contain 72 MicroSCADA PRO workstations. The turnkey project started in late 2007 and is scheduled to final roughly two years. The project also involves a migration plan for future upgrades of much more from the technique as function progresses.Substations might be created smarter by adding sensors, monitoring, automation and evaluation systems. "Utilities typically possess a hierarchy for their substations depending on complexity and criticality," said Wes Sylvester, director, distribution options Siemens Energy T&D Inc. (Wendell, North Carolina, U.S.). "Those defined as complex/critical will tend to be a lot more fully monitored and highly intelligent, while less critical substations may not justify as much automation or intelligence."Add-on intelligent components give substation owners cost-effective options to incrementally transform their substations,
prioritized by greatest value to their business. "Many start out by adding intelligence to transformers ?a some owners are far more interested in circuit breakers and others are focused on security issues. In many cases, it is dependent on what issues have caused them the most problems with reliability," Sylvester explained.The Siemens method is to work with the owner and develop a road map of what is needed. Sylvester utilizes the example of monitoring a medical patient's vital signs to successfully predict and avoid heart attacks. It is the same principle in the substation. Siemens' Spectrum Power CC Asset Directional Overcurrent
lets the utility select the software suite of components for the issue at hand.