 CHARRUA, CHILE
TRANSMISSION SUBSTATION – May 2004
Virelec supplies substation automation system
Virelec was selected by GE Power Systems to supply the protection, control and SCADA system for a major substation being built by AREVA for TRANSELEC, Chile’s main transmission company. Located in Charrua, 520 kilometres south of Santiago, the 500kV/220 kV substation is designed to incorporate the nearby Ralco 570 MW hydro power plant, and is a key element of a project to strengthen TRANSELEC’s 500kV transmission system.
Charrua has two incoming 500kV lines with 84MVAR shunt reactors, connected to a double busbar with a third separate live transfer bus. There is a bus-tie circuit breaker, a transfer breaker, and two 500 kV/220 kV autotransformers connected to the busbar. The station has a 220kV double busbar with sixteen planned lines, a bus-tie and bus-section circuit breaker as well as the two incoming 220kV connections to the autotransformers. There are also two short lines to the nearby 570MW Ralco hydro power station. Being located close to the Andes mountain range, all the equipment in the substation has to meet the demanding zone 4 seismic standards.
The GE Multilin UR relay range was selected as the backbone of the protection system for the lines, transformers and reactors, while SEL and Siemens devices were also selected for complementary line and busbar protection applications. A UR C60 control device was applied to each bay to implement functions such as breaker failure protection, metering, bay logic, live bus transfer, bus connection image for busbar protection and interlocking. To further reduce the discrete device count, touch-screen Quickpanels were used for bay-level control, driven by the Flexlogic available in the UR devices.
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substation SCADA system has a dual-redundant ethernet fibre-optic
network based on the GE D200 platform. The system handles over 16,000
points from the IED’s and the primary equipment, concentrates the
data via the D200 RTU, and communicates with the transmission control
centre using the DNP3.0 protocol. The network uses the substation-hardened
RuggedCom ethernet switches and incorporates the adjacent UR L90
IED’s protecting the 220kV lines to the Ralco substation.
The substation control system uses the GE Powerlink Advantage HMI
software for local operation, accessing all the IED’s and enabling
the use of specific configuration software such as URPC for setting
the IED’s.
Virelec’s engineering scope included the development of the AC and
DC schematics, the configuration of the IED’s, the assembly and
wiring of the panels, the seismic-testing of the panels, the FAT
(Factory Acceptance Test), and site commissioning. To implement
the FAT effectively, Virelec simulated the Charrua substation configuration
using various auxiliary relays, latching relays and timers, coupled
with a secondary injection test system developed by Manta Test Systems.
Over 3km of fibre-optic patch cords were used to create a temporary
network during the testing process. The FAT configuration allowed
representatives from TRANSELEC to verify the performance of the
automation system by implementing a variety of simulated primary
faults and operating conditions. This has given the customer great
confidence in the system and reduced the burden of site commissioning.
The Charrua system is a showcase for Canadian substation automation
expertise; the SCADA platform and control system was supplied by
GE Energy Systems in Calgary, Alberta; most of the protection equipment
was supplied by GE Multilin in Markham, Ontario; the ethernet switches
were supplied by RuggedCom of Mississauga, Ontario; RCM Technologies
of Mississauga verified the seismic withstand capability of the
panels using finite element analysis; Manta of Mississauga provided
the test equipment and developed pre-set templates for fault scenarios
in proving protection tripping logic in the FAT process; and Virelec
of Mississauga designed, manufactured, integrated, tested and commissioned
the complete system.
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