The Stalybridge outdoor air insulated switchgear (AIS) 275 kV substation to be replaced by a new indoor substation using ABB's state-of-the-art gas insulated switchgear (GIS):
Voltimum Founder Member Company ABB has been awarded a £44m turn-key contract by National Grid for the complete replacement of Stalybridge 275kV substation - one of the main substations serving south east Manchester - with a new indoor substation based on ABB's compact, state-of-the-art, gas insulated switchgear (GIS). The project is the first major ABB activity to be carried out as a Joint Activity Solution (JAS) between National Grid and ABB. This is a new collaborative way of working in which a core National Grid/ABB team was established at the early stages of the project to carry out a detailed analysis of the available substation replacement options and to define the optimum solution.
The Stalybridge 11-bay outdoor 275kV substation was originally constructed between 1957 and 1961. It is now in need of substantial refurbishment as the existing circuit breakers are almost life-expired, while the concrete infrastructure is also reaching the end of its useful life. Since the circuits served by the substation are difficult to take out of service for long periods a new substation has to be constructed off-line.
Indoor GIS solution:
The JAS team selected the compact indoor GIS solution, rather than AIS, because there is insufficient space on site to accommodate an off-line AIS substation. Furthermore, an in-situ replacement would require piling works to take place adjacent to live equipment and structures that are already known to be in poor condition. The off-line GIS solution has the added benefits of reducing National Grid's resource requirement and facilitating a more flexible outage programme.
In addition to the complete replacement of the 275kV AIS substation, the project also includes rationalisation of overhead line entries to the substation and system reinforcements, and extension of the adjacent 400kV AIS substation.
More about NICAP:
Stalybridge is the first new-build substation in which ABB is implementing bay solutions for the substation protection and automation systems based on National Grid's standardised NICAP (National scheme for Integrated Control and Protection) philosophy. This approach, using pre-engineered, pre-tested and pre-approved equipment enables the same functionality to be condensed into a much smaller footprint, reduces the amount of on-site work and achieves major reductions in the delivery time for this element.
The 275kV substation replacement is programmed to be commissioned and fully operational by November 2008 with all remaining ancillary work to be completed by February 2009.
The picture shows the ABB site team prepares to start work at Stalybridge - (L-R) Tim Arthur - Layouts, Dilip Suthar - Planning, David Osborne - 400kV Site Manager, Jon Ackerley - PM, Paul Lightfoot - Quality, Roy Southernwood - Site H&S Officer.