Case Studies

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Transmission Network Design in the Netherlands


In May 2008 British Power International (BPI) was awarded a contract to carry out primary, secondary and telecommunication engineering design for a major new substation in The Netherlands. TenneT TSO BV, the Dutch Transmission Network Operator, planned to establish a 380kV Substation at Oudeschip (EOS380) in the north of the country. The substation was to be supplied from two proposed Generating Stations: Nuon (1400 MW) and RWE (2 x 800MW). BPI’s work also included the preparation of tender and ‘To-Build’ packages and the project is currently in its construction phase. The substation comprises eight branches of 1.5 circuit breaker configuration (with a total of 24 circuit breakers to cater for future requirements) and remote end stations for adjoining power plants.

The highlights of the project were:

  • One of the largest projects that BPI has carried out at 380kV;
  • Use of TenneT design standards; and
  • Preparation of secondary and telecommunication design drawings in ELCAD software.

The team of engineers from BPI involved on the project were: Prakash Dey, David Pugh, Suresh Ramamurthy, Eric Chia and Viren Sharma. Other colleagues from BPI’s design headquarters at Colchester, Essex supported their work.

BPI designed a fully integrated substation architecture suitable for unmanned operation, remote control, monitoring and diagnosis from dual redundant control centres in Arnhem & EDE-Wageningen. To support this architecture, BPI has produced operational documentation of approximately 2500 pages.

The primary design consisted of the preparation of drawings from Single Line Diagram (SLD) to details of clamps and connectors and three dimensional views of structures. Secondary design included engineering details of numerical relays, bay control systems, disturbance recorders, synchronisation switches and power quality metering. The details included in the telecommunication design included FO connectivity (splicing & termination), OPGW connectivity, telephone, fax, hotlines, public address systems and network controllers. SDH/PDH Multiplexers, routers, optical & electrical switches, G703 converters, media converters and patch panels are also part of the telecommunication package.

Key members of BPI’s team spent about five months in Arnhem (Netherlands), preparing the design packages for the construction phase. In total the design work for the project consumed over 3 man years. The associated power plants are expected to be completed and commissioned during the period 2011 – 2012.

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