Name / D Hughes / Session / 6
Company / EA Technology / Block / 2
Address / Capenhurst. Chester. / Question n° / 10 min Paper presentation
CH1 6ES. UK. / Language used on the floor / English
Phone / +44(0)151 347 2352 / Accompanying visuals on file ? / Yes
e-mail /
A PROGRAMME FOR EFFECTIVE RESEARCH INTO SUBSTATION PLANT CONDITION
The Strategic Technology Programme set up by EA Technology has been in existence for 5 years, and has proven to be very successful in providing research for member companies, without infringing their commercial or competitive concerns. It has enabled the individual Distribution Network Operators (DNO) to adopt a collaborative approach to tackling technical and business problems that are of mutual interest.
A major strength of the STP concept is that the projects within the programme are developed in response to business needs of member companies and are not “technology led. It is the member’s programme, which they intimately guide and to which they contribute. It is an axiom of the STP that all members bring their own company experiences and information to it. The quality of the findings depends on a free flow of information to support the researchers. This has been an outstanding feature of the STP and has contributed to the success of the projects undertaken. A further significant feature is the cost gearing achieved by collaboration means expenditure is cost effective and research can be undertaken which is beyond the budget of many companies.
The paper describes the work of the module dedicated to distribution substation plant. To date, this module has concentrated on maintenance/replacement strategies for substation plant and equipment. One successful approach has been to carry out fundamental studies to understand the degradation and failure processes of the plant and equipment. This knowledge has then been exploited to provide techniques, devices, tools and strategies that provide technical and business benefits to members. Shorter-term projects, targeted at specific problem areas, have brought immediate benefits. The approach has been to create interrelated projects around a theme area (e.g. distribution switchgear, transformer life management) to provide a continuing thread of projects leading to innovation for long term improvements. A striking example is the rapid development of a device for headspace gas testing of distribution switchgear to manage a pressing operational problem, giving immediate and significant safety, operational and monetary benefits. This concept is being extended to establish a non-invasive method of determining oil condition at all stages of degradation via the headspace gas and which should provide substantial benefits by providing a condition based approach to the maintenance strategy for oil switchgear condition. The fundamental studies underpinning this work have established that the condition of oil in 11kV switchgear is the critical factor in determining the need for maintenance. This has led to the concept of oil sampling as a viable means of determining the optimum maintenance frequency for switchgear types. This has allowed DNOs to implement some significant changes to the maintenance strategies and policies for oil switchgear, resulting in considerable cost savings while retaining or even enhancing the reliability of the oil switchgear. It also gave added impetus to the development of techniques for live tank oil sampling now being introduced into the UK.
Live Tank Oil Sampling Kit Fitted to an Oil Ring Main Unit
The programme, of course, has been far wider than the above examples with over 80 projects undertaken to date, of which 15 are in progress. The projects have covered what can be classed as “hard” issues are concerned with plant and equipment and “soft” issues concerned with strategy and policy and plant data management. More details are in the published paper. The programme continues in good health with many new proposals in the pipeline for consideration for inclusion in the future work programme.
In conclusion, a collaborative programme such as STP can be recommended to other groups of utilities as a proven model for providing research. The format enables collaboration on problems of mutual interest, without infringing commercial or competitive concerns. The experience to date has shown that it can provide valuable data that can been used by companies to develop and introduce new techniques and methodologies to improve strategy, policy and procedures. The member companies do require that the programme provides a positive return on their investment. The fact that the programme has run for 6 years and is set to continue into the foreseeable is testament to fact that it has provided that return.