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I n 2013 GEA's high voltage electrical network com- prised of approximately 97 substations of almost exclusively Schneider Electric equipment and protection relays. The existing SCADA system monitored and controlled three distribution centres (Waterport, Orange Bastion and Jumper's Bastion) and monitored the status of approximately 11 substations across the network. During the project, GEA also inherited the responsibility for a further 50 substations from the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Due to a growing need from both domestic and commercial users for reliable electricity supply, the GEA was facing a challenge in how to manage and scale demand. With an aging network and no electrical in- terconnection with the Spanish mainland, reliability of supply was becoming a critical issue. GEA decided to upgrade its pow- er station and look to automate the control of the distribution of power across the territory. Most unplanned outages INDUSTRY INSIGHT were due to generator faults, with a lesser but signi' cant number due to cable faults. The location of these cable faults was o' en noti' ed to GEA by the members of the public, as the SCADA and protection system did not pin-point exactly where in the network the fault had occurred. The problems were so severe that outages in 2013 and 2014 had begun to have a signi' - cant impact on local commerce. In 2013 GEA approached Da- vid Porter at Schneider Electric's UK Energy Application Centre to provide a reliable, e— ective and long-term solution to issues on the network. At around the same time the Government of Gibraltar procured a new dual fuel power station to replace the existing diesel Waterport Power station, to be located at the North Mole. This they agreed would solve some but not all of their issues. CMA Electrical and Data accepted the challenge to tackle a large and complex site across 21 buildings. Some were brand new whilst others were heritage listed. This posed many path- way challenges to the cabling upgrade whilst limited access to certain area's which required lateral thinking and innovative problem solving. Further adding to complexity of the installation, a schedule was in place to work around students and classrooms to pro- vide minimal disruption whilst maintaining an eš cient time frame with the wireless network being rolled out live following each segments work. Solution and benefi ts To improve the overall perfor- mance and deliver an up-to-date distribution network system, providing a reliable and e— ec- tive control and automation in conjunction with the new power station, Schneider Electric implemented its EcoStruxure Substation Operation, formerly known as PACiS – a digital con- trol system for substation auto- mation, part of the EcoStruxure Grid o— er. This o— ered GEA the functionality and œ exibility they needed as the solution is designed for both new and ret- Powering Gibraltar Mike Phillips, key account manager at Schneider Electric, talks about the company's role in helping the Gibraltar Electricity Authority (GEA) manage reliability and supply for the territory. ro' t applications, with speci' c features including automatic supply restoration (ASR) and intelligent fast load-shedding (iFLS). It is based on a œ exible architecture designed under the IEC 61850 Standard that ensures interoperability with regards to functionality, performance and physical distribution across the di— erent types of substations. The future The EcoStruxure Substation Operation system continues to evolve and grow with Schneider Electric supplying integrated 11kV equipment, using its PIX, Ringmaster, Genie Evo, Premset, transformer and VAMP, MiCOM and SEPAM Protection relay solutions. The early phases of this bespoke solution have been suc- cessfully implemented. For the whole 10-year pro- ject the revenue to Schneider Electric will be in excess of £10 million. For further information visit www.schneider-electric.co.uk NETWORK / 15 / OCTOBER 2018