PGCIL commissions India’s first fully digital substation
India, Punjab, Malerkotla: Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd recently commissioned a 400 kV digital substation in Punjab, making it India’s first such.
Image source: T&D India
India, Punjab, Malerkotla: Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd recently commissioned a 400 kV digital substation in Punjab, making it India’s first such.
Reliable media reports indicate that the digital substation based on IEC 61850 Process Bus technology, was commissioned at Malerkotla on 16 December 2020.
It is further learnt that the digital substation was a case of retrofitting the existing conventional Malerkotla substation (commissioned in 1992) with full digital technology. Such retrofitting also makes PGCIL one of the few power utilities in the world, to do so.
Extensive studies and testing carried out at POWERGRID’s Protection, Automation and Control and Real-Time Simulation Labs facilitating improved network design and architecture and multi-vendor IED interoperability which were recognised for standardisation of various processes in IEC and CIGRE, it is learnt.
When used in EHV/UHV substations, this IEC 61850 process bus technology provides flexibility in engineering, paves the way for faster commissioning, reduced downtime, enhanced diagnostics, and ease in troubleshooting during asset management.
This technology also helps in reducing environmental footprint with a reduction in requirement of copper cables and civil works, it is learnt.
It is reliably learnt that PGCIL is developing its first fully digital 200 kV greenfield substation at Chandigarh. The factory acceptance test is complete and commissioning tests are currently underway.
In July 2020, PGCIL announced that the site commissioning activities at the then upcoming Malerkotla substation were in progress. Implementation of this first commercial 400 kV fully digital substation was completed in April 2019.
Substation automation using IEC 61850 technology was something that PGCIL has been doing for the past ten years. Till July 2020, grid substation automation was completed in over 100 substations. However, the Malerkotla substation is PGCIL’s first fully digital substation to be put into commercial operations.
Source: T&D India