WEG's digital substations for energy transmission
The topic of digital substations and the application of the process bus according to the IEC-61850 standard is already a reality in the National Interconnected System (SIN). WEG, as a provider of protection and control systems (SPCS), has several projects in its portfolio that already apply this type of technology.
One of them is the Vilhena Substation 230/138/69/13.8kV, with the implementation stage of the bar reactors for spans HX-6RB-02 and IX-6RB-03 of 230kV – 60MVAr, the first digital substation energized and manufactured by WEG in an Energy Transmission system.
The bar reactor 6RB-02 was energized, using the digital solution in the SPCS for this equipment. In other words, Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs - protection and control relays), Merging Units (MUs - data acquisition unit for digitizing analog signals from current transformers, potential transformers, and binary signals from equipment in the yard), and the process bus were installed, using communication protocols described in the IEC 61850 standard (Sampled Values, GOOSE, MMS) and the redundancy protocol PRP according to the IEC-62439 standard.
The Merging Units were mounted on specific panels (with double walls, white paint, IP-65 protection rating, among other features) to be installed in the substation yard, providing better internal thermal control to the panel. IEDs, switches, and GNSSs were mounted on conventional protection and control panels and placed in the control room. Now, all data transfer is done through optical fiber cables, replacing command and control cables, reducing implementation and commissioning time.
It is important to note that, for this type of solution, it is necessary to carry out a battery of tests to certify and ensure the correct operation of the process bus. After the factory acceptance tests (TAF), the system is fully configured and tested according to functional, logical, architectural, and network map projects, ensuring correct operation. After this stage, signal avalanche tests are carried out together with the injection of message overload and network failure simulation to assess the system's behavior, verifying the correct operation of the protections.
WEG has software and hardware, some of which were developed using proprietary technology, to be used in this phase, in addition to having a network monitoring system. In this way, WEG contributes to the National Interconnected System (SIN) by providing the latest and most advanced in protection and control systems, both for transmission substations integrated into the SIN and for generation, distribution, industrial, mobile, and skid substations.