Integration and customisation [substations]

De-regulation of the industry has forced engineers to question whether current practices are the most cost-effective solutions to their customer´s problems. Together with technological advancements the solution put forward normally involves the integration of a multitude of previously separate features into one or two black boxes. This can have many advantages in terms of reduced costs, increased functionality, enhanced performance, reduced maintenance regimes etc. However advance invariably provides us with new problems to overcome. The trend towards integration of features has resulted in “world” products that have more features than any single particular application actually requires. In many cases this has increased the complexity of the equipment to the point that experienced engineers question their own ability. VATECH Reyrolle, Reyrolle Protection have recognised that with continued integration a new perspective has to be taken that will move away from the manufacturer providing comprehensive but complex functionality world products. Instead customisation of an integrated product to best fit a customers application is the key to ensuring that the solution proposed is correctly scaled to the problem