Advancing the grid
Alstom Grid unveiled its latest innovations at CIGRE 2014, the biennial worldwide forum of the electrical power industry, held in Paris, France last month
Alstom Grid unveiled its latest innovations at CIGRE 2014, the biennial worldwide forum of the electrical power industry, held in Paris, France last month. These were the new Asset Management Solution; Digital Substation 2.0; g3, a clean alternative to SF6 gas and the ultra-fast DC Circuit Breaker.
Announcing the launch of an environment-friendly alternative to SF6, a gas commonly used in high-voltage equipment, Michel Augonnet, Senior Vice President Commercial Solutions, Alstom Grid, said: “g3 or green gas for grid is the world’s first environmentally friendly alternative to SF6. It has 98% less impact on global warming than SF6. With performances comparable to SF6, it is a suitable technology for the development of today’s new generation of clean high- and ultra-high voltage equipment.”
Explaining the rationale behind the new asset management solution, Patrick Plas, Senior Vice President Grid Power Electronics & Automation, Alstom Grid said: “Electricity utilities face budget constraints in the context of aging infrastructure. They have to minimise maintenance cost and maximise life of their assets avoiding costs, inconveniences and customer dissatisfaction associated with equipment failure and service outages. Our new asset management solution maximises the value and reliability of utilities’ electrical assets.”
The solution optimises maintenance and asset replacement decisions by integrating advanced analytics with the criticality of each piece of equipment. Data is collected from all types of electrical assets, including third-party equipment.
“The solution also integrates real-time condition monitoring of equipment to anticipate failures, thus reducing failure rates by up to 70% and maintenance costs by up to 30%,” claimed Plas.
He also announced the launch of Digital Substation 2.0, the first version of which was unveiled during CIGRE 2012. Plas continued: “A digital substation provides a flexible communication infrastructure that reduces the limitation of point-to-point wiring and allows two-way information and device data to be shared in real time. The visibility and control provided by digital substations are helping utilities become more reactive and flexible, enabling them to meet demands of grid operators.”
Digital Substation 2.0 enhances smart grid management and operation using intuitive dashboards for enhanced situational awareness. It ensures optimum real-time performance of the grid by monitoring availability, health, and dynamic loading capability of the substation assets and connected circuits. Alstom Grid has delivered more than 10 digital substation projects worldwide including one in the Middle East for Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).
Another innovation announced at CIGRE was the ultra-fast Direct Current (DC) circuit breaker, which Plas described as a major step towards creating the Supergrid.“A Supergrid is a combination of AC and HVDC transmission lines that transport, interconnect and balance electricity across countries, regions and continents and integrate renewables,” he explained. “We have over 50 years of experience and innovation in Supergrid technology.”
The ultra-fast DC circuit breaker was developed by Alstom Grid within the framework of the Twenties European programme. On a high-voltage DC grid, these circuit breakers ensure protection and help avoid failures and blackouts by cutting off the current in a malfunctioning equipment, thereby isolating the fault from the rest of the grid.
While such breakers are used in the AC grid, with DC case grids, radically new technology is required because the circuit breaker is required to perform 10 to 20 times faster than in AC grids. Moreover, utilities are increasingly using DC to guarantee efficient transmission of power over long distances and to stabilise the grid, which must accommodate increasing supplies of renewable energy.
“Alstom’s prototype successfully interrupted a 5,200-ampere current at 160kV with full extinction of DC in less than 5.5 milliseconds under the real operational constraints of a high-voltage DC transmission grid,” said Plas. Augonnet attributed these successes to Alstom Grid’s relentless focus on innovation, with the company investing nearly 4% of its sales in Research & Development (R&D) annually.
“Our product launches across the years are the outcome of our innovations,” he said. “Our experts collaborate closely with international standardisation organisations and with leading universities. Innovation teams, based across more than 25 global technology and R&D excellence centres around the world, are preparing the future of electrical networks.”
