2003-06-12 - Gas insulated switchgear will enable new substation to be housed indoors while using one quarter of the space
ABB has just started work on a £9 million contract for NEDL (Northern Electric’s distribution business) to design and build the replacement 132kV interconnector substation at Norton, near Stockton-on-Tees. The 15-strong projects team has already cleared the site and has begun laying the foundations for the new indoor building for the gas insulated (GIS) switchgear which will enable the new substation to be condensed into around one quarter of the space occupied by the existing substation.
Norton substation, which interconnects the National Grid and NEDL’s distribution network, supplies power to Teeside and surrounding areas. It is now reaching the end of its useful life and is to be replaced to ensure continued reliability of supply.
NEDL’s original plan was to construct a new outdoor substation alongside the existing substation using similar AIS (air insulated switchgear). This would have required the purchase of additional land. When the project came out to tender ABB suggested an alternative based on its state of the art compact ELK- 04 gas insulated (GIS) switchgear housed in an indoor building. This has the advantage of requiring only one quarter of the space, so will free up land for alternative usage when the existing substation is decommissioned.
In addition to saving space, GIS also offers two further advantages to NEDL. Firstly, circuit downtime will be reduced as the new circuits in GIS can be constructed with the existing units still in service. So the downtime is then reduced to the re-routing of the network connections. In addition, the GIS can be constructed outside the existing live compound thereby considerably reducing Health & Safety risks to personnel working on site.
ABB is providing a complete design, construction and installation service for the new substation, which will feature 20 bays of switchgear and provide a 132kV interconnection for eight incoming and outgoing circuits. It is expected to become operational towards the end of 2004.
NEDL background
NEDL serves the fourth largest geographic area of the 12 regional electricity distribution companies in England and Wales. Its service area comprises 14,400 sq km in north east England with a resident population of 3.2 million.
NEDL receives electricity from the National Grid transmission system and distributes it, at voltages of up to 132kV, to 1.5 million premises. The company owns and operates over 17,000 km of overhead lines and 27,000 km of underground cables.
ABB Background
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 135,000 people.