Innovation in Global Power - Parsons Brinckerhoff

Distributing Power to Users
The final stage of the active thermal control system response
is to dispatch a set of suggested operating set points to the
generation schemes within the jurisdiction of the thermal
controller.
The Prototype Controller. It is expected that the natural
home of the thermal controller application would be within the
software of the network management system. The prototype
controller developed as part of this project will, however, be
hosted on a separate system, taking in some data from the
network management system and some additional data.
DTR algorithms use information local to each component and
may also be used to provide a useful protection function.
Drawing on AREVA’s experience, we proposed implementing
these algorithms within AREVA MiCOM protection relays.
The cubicles housing the relays would act as collection points
for the relevant data, which would also be passed on to the
host of the thermal controller. Figure 4 shows the prototype
controller layout in basic graphical form.
Under normal operation, the thermal controller and the relay
would run the same algorithm predicting the thermal limits of
the component. If for some reason the network management
system and thermal controller fail to stop a component
reaching its thermal limit, the relay would trip the circuit
breaker protecting the component.
Figure 4:
Graphical
representation
of the prototype
controller.
The Site Trial Network
http://www.pbworld.com/news_events/publications/network/
A section of Scottish Power Energy Networks’ distribution
network has been made available to the development team
for the field trials and development of the prototype thermal
controller. The selected network delivers power from an
offshore wind farm to the UK’s interconnected power system
using 33 kV and 132 kV circuits.
The site trial network will be used as a source of electrical,
thermal and meteorological data that will be gathered using
existing and new measurement equipment installed specifically
for this project. It will be “over-instrumented” so that sufficient
information can be gathered to validate the thermal algorithms
that were developed as the initial stages of this project.
Selected signals will be used for the prototype controller,
with the validation exercise providing an understanding of
the number of additional measurements (meteorological,
electrical and thermal) that will be required to ensure the
algorithms are capable of providing DTRs of the required
accuracy and reliability.
Development Overview and Conclusions
This project is into its second year and thermal algorithms
have been developed for overhead lines, underground cables
and transformers. Encouraging desktop simulation results
based on actual UK meteorological data suggest appreciable
headroom exists that may be exploited with the implementation
of our active thermal controller. These simulations
considered the site trial network and selected generic UK
distribution networks, and gave our team an appreciation
of the potential benefits of applying DTRs on the UK’s
distribution networks.
Scottish Power Energy Networks is currently procuring
thermal and meteorological measurement equipment to
be installed on the site trial network, which will be
commissioned during planned network outages during
mid-2008 (Summer). The model validation and prototype
development will follow the installation of the measurement
equipment, with project completion scheduled for
September 2009.
Related Web Sites:
• http://my.epri.com/portal/server.pt?
• http://www.iee.org/oncomms/pn/powerca/dg-seminar.cfm
• http://www.ensg.gov.uk/assets/kel003110000.pdf
Alex Neumann is a senior power systems engineer specialising in the elements of power system design, analysis and operation. He has been with PB for six years since
moving to the UK from South Africa, where he worked for the System Operations Division of Eskom Transmission. Alex is currently working as project manager for the
research project discussed in this article alongside PB’s Ian Burdon, the project leader.
71 PB Network #68 / August 2008