This tender is for the delivery of a feasibility study to investigate and identify the future requirements for SMART transmission control systems.

There is an increasing quantity of onshore and offshore wind generation and as a result the power flows across the transmission system are becoming increasing variable and unpredictable. In time this will compromise the security of the network as control engineers will lose the ability to ensure the system is operating economically.

In addition as the system becomes more complex previous security systems, such as inter-trip systems which are designed to automatically trip generation or carry out automatic system reconfiguration, will become compromised. The system modelling effort required to manage special protection systems will increase and the duration and opportunity to engage special protection system may reduce significantly.

The determination of the power system ‘state’ pre and post fault is a key requirement in determining the post fault control action. The connection of generation to transmission boundary circuits leads to a very complex set of variables since the amount of generation to be tripped to restore security/stability will vary with the fault point, pre-fault transfers, generation background, parallel HVDC flows and other pre-fault network contingencies.

Benefits

This project will be deemed successful if a portfolio of network transmission control strategy is developed that may be applied across Scottish Power transmission boundaries to facilitate the integration of large volumes of renewable generation onto the transmission system, in a safe, secure and sustainable way.