European utilities have started to reinvest in transmission and distribution networks, and evidence shows this investment will continue. Following the three large power-system failures in Europe (the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Italy) during the fall of 2003, utilities are focusing on tackling tactical projects that will increase system capacity and reliability. High-technology solutions will be used to address and enhance the capacity, performance and management of the interconnected transmission system and distribution networks operated by individual utilities. This month, T&D World highlights some of the major projects recently commissioned, in progress or planned in Europe.

Transmission

The Madrid Barajas Airport (Madrid, Spain) is being redeveloped with the construction of two new runways, terminal and satellite areas. To comply with legal regulations, an existing 400-kV double-circuit transmission line with a winter rating of 1720 MVA operated by Red Eléctrica de Espana (REE) had to be undergrounded for a section having a route length of 12.8 km (8 miles). REE considered cable and gas-insulated lines (GIL), and selected a 2500-mm² (3.8-in²) copper conductor XLPE-insulated cable with copper conductor cable for undergrounding the first 400-kV transmission line in Spain. This Euro 80 million project managed and coordinated by the utility involved the use of the following main contractors:

• Cable Suppliers, Pirelli (Gron, France) and ABB (Mannheim, Germany)

• Civil Works Contractor by SAGLAS (Spanish installation contractor)

• Main Contractor COBRA supported by ELECNOR, INABENSA & SAMPOL

• All Spanish installation contractors.

The first project contracts (cable) were awarded in September 2001, with the commissioning test program scheduled to start in January 2004.

The 110-kV transmission line between Salmisaari and Meilahti, built in 1951, is the oldest line in Helsinki, Finland. To improve the transmission-system capacity to the central and southwestern parts of the city, Helsinki Energy conducted a feasibility study before electing to rebuild the circuit on a new 3.3-km (2-mile) route, which freed up valuable land and increased the city's recreational area. Lattice and landscaped towers were considered for the new line. The turnkey project contract was awarded to Eltel Networks Oy, which commenced tower foundation work in February 2003 and completed construction of the 110-kV line in December 2003.

ALSTOM was awarded a Euro 40 million turnkey contract for the design, construction and supply of equipment for the two converter stations to increase the capacity of the existing 275-MW HVDC submarine cable link between Sweden and Denmark. Because the project calls for the replacement of existing converter stations at each end of the Kattegat at Vester Hassing, Denmark, and Lindome, Sweden, the contract is divided into two parts: one with the Swedish transmission system operator Svenska Kraftnät and the other with its Danish counterpart, ELTRA. Replacement of the 1960s mercury arc scheme with the latest thyristor-based technology will increase the transfer capacity of the HVDC link to 380 MW.

Hydropower currently accounts for 15% of all power generation in Russia, and plans are in place to upgrade the country's eastern energy system. In July 2003, the Unified Energy System (UES) of Russia signed a US$22 million contract with ABB to supply, install and commission 500-kV gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) at the 2000-MW Bureyskaya Hydropower Plant as part of the system that will transmit power to regions of eastern Russia.

EHV Substations and Switchgear

Highly integrated switchgear (HIS), a combination of air- and gas-insulated technology designed for outdoor substations, requires less than 50% of the space needed by air-insulated equipment. Developed by Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution (PTD), it is now available for 420-kV applications. The manufacturer has already supplied eight 420-kV bays to two power plant operators in Italy, three bays to Endesa in Ostiglia (near Verona) and five bays to Edipower in Sermide. In November 2003, REE in Spain placed an order with Siemens PTD for these factory-tested, fully assembled 420-kV circuit breakers, current transformers and disconnector/earthing switch modules. The first seven 420-kV bays will be installed in Palos de la Frontera, near Gibraltar.

National Grid's new 400-kV indoor substation in the City Road canal basin in Islington, North London — a two-year design, civil works, supply and commissioning of substation switchgear and ancillary equipment — was completed by ABB in 2003. Equipped with four bays of compact GIS technology, a 240-MVA 400/132-kV transformer protection and control systems, this brick-built substation was architecturally designed to minimize the aesthetic impact on the area.

Similarly, U.K.'s Northern Electric Distribution business (NEDL) awarded ABB a £9 million contract for an indoor 132-kV substation equipped with compact ELK-04 GIS. Scheduled for completion in 2005, the new substation at Norton, near Middlesbrough, will replace an obsolete 132-kV outdoor substation and will require only 25% of the space previously used.

Distribution Networks.

In 2002, NUON, one of the largest Dutch utilities, chose Pirelli Cables & Systems N.V. to supply all of the 150-kV and the majority of 50-kV underground cable systems required over a period of two and a half years. The contract, worth about Euro 23 million, forms part of a large extension and upgrading plan of the NUON network “Full Power.” The greater part of more than 20 projects will be installed around Amsterdam and the eastern part of the Netherlands. Pirelli will supply more than 370 km (230 miles) of extruded 150-kV and 50-kV XLPE cable, more than 400 prefabricated Click Fit-type cable joints and 150 terminations. In close cooperation with NUON, each project will be customized with state-of-the-art prefabricated jointing and termination techniques, and use of multiple conductor cross-sections. In addition, all 150-kV cable circuits will have an integrated optical fiber for distributed temperature monitoring and future ampacity load management.

In October 2003, Siemens PTD completed a six-month project — the installation of Siplink (Siemens Multifunctional Powerlink) for SWU Energie GmbH (a wholly owned subsidiary of Stadtwerke ULM/Neu-Ulm GmbH). This German distributor supplies energy in the area previously supplied by two municipal 10-kV networks, Ulm and Neu-Ulm.

The uncontrollable circulating current made it impossible to interconnect or parallel these networks. The two 10-kV networks are linked in a medium-voltage duplicate bus bar switching station at the Böfinger Halde Hydropower Plant on the banks of the River Danube. The Siemens equipment acts as a bus coupler designed to balance peak loads up to 2 MW, the rating of the installed Siplink unit. The unit, measuring 4.8 m by 1.6 m by 2 m (16 ft by 5 ft by 6.5 ft), is located in the generating plant's switchroom, and the resin-encapsulated transformers connected to the medium-voltage level are installed in separate compartments. The link has an interface to the existing control and monitoring system, and therefore can be operated from the network control center. The Siemens system allows the utility to use existing energy and capacity reserves at times of peak demand without purchasing costly regulating energy.

The world's northernmost wind farm at Havøygavlen, Finnmark, Norway, officially opened on June 4, 2003. Having been in commercial operation for nine months, the 16 2.5-MW windmills are expected to generate some 120 GWh annually. Installed for Artic Wind A.S., they were supplied, installed and operated by Nordex, which subcontracted all electrical connection work to ALSTOM. ALSTOM T&D supplied and installed 0.66/22-kV transformers at the base of each windmill; the wind farm's main 40 MVA 22/66-kV transformer; and 22-kV and 66-kV switchboards, protection and control equipment.

In a separate contract, ALSTOM supplied a 66-kV bay to utility Repvåg Kraftlag for Havøysund Substation to connect the wind farm to the regional grid.

Control and Protection

Siemens PTD is currently working on a £20 million-plus three-year contract for the supply of control and protection solutions for 40 National Grid (U.K.) transmission substations. This contract forms part of the company's National Integrated Control and Protection strategy to install state-of-the-art light current technology at 240 substations.

Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operation Co. (KEGOC; Republic of Kazakhstan), Almaty, a state-owned company, is responsible for the operation of the national high-voltage (HV) and extra-high-voltage (EHV) networks (from 110 kV to 1150 kV, total length 338,000 km [210,000 miles]) together with the associated substations and switchgear.

In addition to network management in Kazakhstan's liberalized energy market, KEGOC is responsible for exchanging power with neighboring countries. In September 2003, Siemens PTD was awarded a contract in excess of Euro 50 million by KEGOC to modernize the control and protection equipment in all the utility's 67 HV and EHV substations. The project calls for the replacement of all existing analog solid-state protection devices in the substations with digital systems (SIPROTEC) and Siemens' substation automation system (SICAM). These two products constitute a uniform solution for control and monitoring of power transmission and distribution systems. In substation control rooms, modern display workstations will replace conventional control panels. In addition to the supply of hardware and software, the contract includes engineering, commissioning and training operational and control-room staff.

Ukraine's National Power Company, UKRENERGO, is responsible for overseeing the Ukrainian integrated power system. Its job is to maintain and operate the system in a stable and economic mode. The installed generating capacity — some 51 GW located in thermal, nuclear and hydropower plants — is interconnected via a transmission system with operating voltages up to 800 kV and a total length of more than 18,000 miles (29,000 km).

A National Load Dispatch Centre (NLDC) controls the Ukrainian Power System. In 1999, ALSTOM T&D was awarded a Euro 11 million contract for the delivery and commissioning of a new control center to replace the existing NLDC. The new center will control the EHV and HV transmission system — Ukraine's main power plants with functional responsibilities biased toward an energy management system (EMS). Key functions for the control center include SCADA, generation control and dispatch, and EMS with facilities for the future energy market. The first stages of commissioning — pilot operation of the SCADA complex — began in December 2002. Additional commissioning and staff training continued during 2003.

System and Energy Management

German-based Energie Baden-Würtemberg AG (EnBW) is the country's third-largest energy business, with a customer base of more than 4.2 million. In May 2003, EnBW signed an agreement with GE Network Solutions to standardize its disparate geospatial information systems. Called the SUSY-Q Project, source data from EnBW and its affiliate, Neckarwerke Stuttgart AG (NWS AG), host more than 35 databases, which will be integrated and managed using a combination of SAP and GE Network Solutions Smallworld software products. The newly integrated database, scheduled for completion in the second half of 2005, will help EnBW avoid cost-intensive redundancies and will serve as the strategic asset management tool for the utility.

ABB Utilities is helping Northern Electric's distribution business (NEDL), which supplies customers in the fourth-largest geographic area in England and Wales, improve reliability of its electricity-supply network. The unique computerized model uses ABB's Performance Advantage software, which employs modeling techniques to develop, evaluate and prioritize investment options to help NEDL target investment programs for increased network reliability. The network model includes details of 568 km (353 miles) of overhead cable and 650 substations imported directly from NEDL's database. This independent analysis is in accord with the expectations of the U.K. regulator, which requires electricity distribution companies to demonstrate how proposed investment plans use customers' money to the best advantage.

The Spanish electricity group, ENDESA SA, signed a US$4.25 million contract with ABB utilities in 2002 for a new IT system to help manage its power installations and operation centers. The system integrates capabilities in control of both power generation and energy trading, whereby ENDESA will link operators and traders throughout Spain within a single network — improving communications and aiding in decision making. The system installed in the new ENDESA Energy Management Center in Madrid is expected to deliver operating results of more than US$25 million a year.

Customer Metering

During October 2003, Itron Inc. (Spokane, Washington, U.S.) was awarded contracts by the Electricity Supply Board of Ireland (ESB) and Metering Services Limited (MSL) for handheld meter-reading computers. The ESB US$2 million contract is for the supply and support of 300 Q-100 MV-RS-CE computers, which are designed for mobile workforces that operate in mission-critical environments. ESB is a state-owned utility responsible for power generation, the transmission system, management and operation of the electricity distribution network in the Republic of Ireland. The utility also is responsible for the meter reading of 1.7 million customers. Moreover, it's the first Itron customer to use the MV-RS software, which offers ESB networks full data-collection support as it prepares for the opening of the Irish Electricity Market in 2005.

Itron will supply MSL with 330 Q-100 handheld meter-reading computers that collect up to 99 additional fields of information from each meter they read and support verification of the meter asset details at each site. MSL performs contract meter-reading services for utility companies throughout the U.K. The company also provides meter asset management, a meter refurbishment and testing service, and remote half-hourly meter reading and processing.

Gornoslaski Zaklad Elektroenergetyczny SA (GZE), a subsidiary of the international Swedish utility Vattenfall, signed a three-year contract for metering services with Siemens Energy Services Poland in October 2003. The new metering services department within Siemens regional company will provide electricity data collection and basic meter maintenance to nearly 1 million meter points in Poland's Silesia region. Siemens PTD Poland will manage the activity in cooperation with the Metering Services HQ in the U.K., where Siemens PTD is the leading independent metering services provider.