Milestone achievements on National Grid’s SCS upgrade
Capula, an Imtech company, has recently completed refurbishment works to schedule on the first 8 substations covered under National Grid’s Substation Control System (SCS) upgrade framework. The upgrade works that took place at Hutton in Cumbria were particularly significant as not only was the SCS replacement completed within just 8 weeks, but this was the first substation on the framework to have a complete substation control system replacement installed into existing cubicles.
Capula was named as a key supplier on National Grid’s SCS upgrade framework last year, a program that will eventually involve the refurbishment and replacement of control systems across a number of substation sites nationally. Capula’s innovative IMPERIUM Substation Control solutions are being effectively deployed on this framework, and as a result we are able to reduce electrical outage times from weeks to minutes, thus helping to maximise the availability of the electrical network.
Commenting on Capula’s activity at Hutton, a National Grid Assurance Engineer said, “I’ve found the Capula approach to be very proactive and focused on customer delivery. Capula completed a full substation control system replacement within 8 weeks, with only one primary circuit outage. Traditionally, this work has taken 6 to 9 months with multiple primary circuit outages.”
“We are pleased to support National Grid and help them maximise the availability of the network with these reduced outages,” said Martin Payne, Capula’s Transmission and Distribution Sector Manager. “The fact that Capula’s IMPERIUM solution was selected for use at Hutton is a direct result of our professional engineers being able to apply their knowledge and understanding of leading control and automation technologies as part of a complete solution to maintain and enhance these critical assets.”
The SCS upgrade framework works will continue to take place on a further 19 sites in 2017, with all remaining works expected to be completed by 2019/2020.