New intelligent features during refurbishment of substations

In our pilot project for refurbishing the 150/10 kV substation Zaltbommel we realized not only state of the art protection and control, but also a fully integrated power quality measurement for all 20 outgoing feeders. Also we realized a medium voltage fault location which detects two and three phase faults with an accuracy of less than 100 meters, and single phase to ground faults in soft grounded network with an accuracy of 500 meters. Because of the distance between medium voltage houses, this accuracy is more than sufficient to know where to start switching for network restoration. We reached several successes in programmable logic controller (PLC) communication over low and medium voltage networks, opening a new world in information and control handling. This involves not only the communication to our customers, e.g. automatic meter reading, but also the total grid management, information between substation and the low voltage connections. Our goal is to reach total transparent and simple substation automation system within 10 years. As a consequence the costs for substation automation refurbishment must be decreased by 90%.