Distribution Automation Project

Location

British Columbia

Customer

B.C. Hydro and Power Authority
George Tripp Substation

Background

Under the auspices of the Windows 2000 project, Customer Service decided to proceed with a distribution automation pilot project to control voltage and vars on feeders emanating from the George Tripp Substation. The first phase of the project covers control of pole-top capacitor banks, requiring the upgrade of telemetry and SCADA information at the substation level. There are two buildings at George Tripp, the old building contains the 25 kV bus breaker P&C panels, tap-changer control panels, RTU, interface, and annunciator; the new building contains P&C panels for the new 25 kV feeders. A substation LAN was established between the two buildings using fibre optics.

Scope

A Modbus Plus LAN involving Modicon PLC, FactoryLink MMI, Bitronics Meters, Relay communication interfaces and RTU interfaces was installed to integrate all the controls, alarming and metering functions within the substation. The PLC also controls the transformer tap changers in a closed loop based on voltage feedbacks and set points downloaded from the central control center via the substation LAN.