132kV Gridyard Upgrade

Taking a lead commissioning role in substation projects is always a rewarding experience, requiring a proactive whole-system approach and collaboration with a number of different interested parties. Our engineer helped to deliver a major expansion project at Urenco UK, which is a nuclear enrichment facility in Cheshire important to the UK’s nuclear power industry. The project included a new 132kV mesh corner, one Gridyard transformer and two brand new 11kV substations.

Project Description

We were pleased to be involved in the intake substation upgrade project at Urenco UK.  The existing electricity supply to the facility comprised of three 132kV feeders to separate 132kV/11kV transformers, which all supplied one 11kV substation.  To boost incoming supply capacity, two brand new switchboards were installed to replace the existing intake substation.  One additional 132kV feeder was also constructed in the form of a new mesh corner and one new Gridyard transformer was installed.

There were design complexities at all levels of the project, and several parties involved including the client, the principal contractor, the transmission network operator National Grid and the distribution network operator Scottish Power.

We assisted the principal contractor with commissioning of the new mesh corner and Gridyard transformer.  This included full secondary injection tests of the new protection and control panels, Site Acceptance Tests of some primary equipment such as the 132kV current transformers, and primary injection tests of the 132kV protection system.  Our engineer also designed and implemented the Delayed Auto Reclose system logic used in the new control panels.

Later in the project, we were involved in the commissioning of the 11kV substations.  Our scope included commissioning of the 11kV protection relays and end-to-end testing of the pilot differential protection.  We also completed Site Acceptance Tests on the 11kV distribution transformers and reactors.  Our engineer helped to redesign the bespoke 11kV interlocking system between the 11kV and 132kV systems.

Project Gallery

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