Hydro Controls Investigations and Support Services

PROJECT TITLE:
Hydro Power Stations and Wind Generators Centralised Control Facility

CLIENT:
Eraring Energy

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Eraring Energy owns and operates 7 Hydro Power Stations and 2 Wind Farms located from Hume Power Station in southern NSW to Keepit Power Station in North Western NSW. Provecta Process Automation has and continues to carry out multiple engineering and implementation projects and support activities across Eraring Energy’s Hydro portfolio aimed at improving reliability and operability of the distributed generators and reduce operating costs. Provecta worked with Eraring Energy to develop a centralised control centre for their Hydro and Wind Power Stations at Kangaroo Valley Power Station. Provecta’s involvement started with the conceptual design of the system and continued through to final implementation. The project involved the provision of technical expertise associated with the control system network design, specification development, project management, SCADA system configuration and provision of operator training in the new system. The scope of work involved in the SCADA system implementation by Provecta included:

  • Project scope development;
  • Development of design basis and technical standards
  • Local Area Network design and implementation;
  • Specification development for RTU installation;
  • Field interface electrical design;
  • Database development;
  • Project Management;
  • Factory Acceptance testing of RTU and SCADA systems;
  • Overall project co-ordination;
  • SCADA system development and commissioning including graphics and SCADA system configuration;
  • Commissioning; and
  • System documentation.

In addition, working closely with Eraring Energy operational staff, Provecta developed and implemented the CitectSCADA HMI system, interfacing with the RTU systems supplied by Eraring Energy’s contractor to Provecta’s specifications. Communications to the remote sites involves a combination of direct fibre optic cable, pilot wires, PSTN, frame relay, ADSL and satellite links. Kingfisher Plus RTUs were used to interface remote sites to the control centre, with Logica MD3311 RTUs used for communications to TransGrid and AEMO.