OMICRON Magazine

however, ATCO is currently accelerat- ing the installation of online monitors and sensors and adjusting its practice towards condition-based performance maintenance over the next few years. Could you elaborate on the responsibilities of your team? We have a broad scope of responsi- bilities. I have to explain first that we commission three categories of substa- tion equipment: primary (e. g., power transformers and regulators, instrument transformers, breakers, switches, capaci- tors and reactors, etc.), secondary (e. g., protective relays, controls and logics, statuses and alarms, etc.) and auxiliary equipment (e. g., control buildings, sta- tion services, grounding systems, cable trays, yard lighting, etc.). To give you a more quantified idea, on average we commission 15 new power transformers a year, typically at 72–240 kv levels. And so far this team has commissioned over 200 substation projects. For the primary equipment, our work scope begins from receiving the as- sets at the site and ends with the final energization. Electrical testing is an important part of this process, but it is just one part of the full picture. are there any major challenges you deal with during commissioning testing? anything specific to test data handling? Absolutely. First things first, we cur- rently use a collection of test equip- ment from various vendors. Many of them are manually operated, each in a different way. Therefore, personal experience is critical and a lot of train- ing is required to ensure efficiency and consistency. Secondly, the assessment of test results is also done manually. That requires the memorization of numerous testing standards. Last but not least, the test data obtained is either manually recorded, or captured by the test set in a certain proprietary format. This gap has made the retriev- ing, exchange and analysis of test data a labor intensive process. since you mentioned that electrical testing is performed by different teams, how is the data collectively managed and exchanged? Currently test data is managed sepa- rately. Most commissioning test data is entered and stored in Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheets, while some other proprietary test data files are saved as is in internet drives. Maintenance test Other equally important tasks our job duties include are inspections, test operations, equipment troubleshoot- ing, drawing package as-built, and the final energization. what is your motivation to perform commissioning and who is interested in the collected test results? Commissioning ensures that sub- station equipment adheres to the specifications and functions as they are designed. Findings from the work can help our colleagues improve engi- neering design and project execution practices. The test results, collected and assessed in accordance with nETA (International Electrical Testing Asso- ciation) and other applicable standards (such as IEEE, IEC and CSA standards), serve as evidence of our operational excellence and compliance with the mandatory nErC (north American Elec- tric reliability Corporation) policy. The main user of our commissioning test results is the Performance Engi- neering team. They use the results as the baseline for comparisons with the subsequent maintenance test results. Several other engineering disciplines are also interested in our results. «OMICRON’s primary test equipment automates many critical electrical tests with prebuilt test plans. This not only saves us a lot of time in test preparation, but also assists the standardization of testing practices across teams.» Frank wang, Engineer, ATCO 16 www.atco.com