Power plant products | New technologies & applications | for Siemens Energy’s SF6


Siemens Energy has been awarded a contract to deliver ten bays of sulphur hexafluoride-free gas-insulated switchgear to Fingrid, Finland’s transmission system operator. It will be the first GIS in Finland that replaces SF6


with ‘clean air’,


a purified mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. It represents Siemens Energy’s largest order for SF6


has a potential for global warming around 23 800 times greater than carbon dioxide and a life span of some 3200 years in the atmosphere. However, due to its unique physical properties, it is in most of the world’s substations still the insulating gas of choice. Fingrid decided to modernise the 110 kV switchgear in its Virkkala substation in Lohja, near Helsinki, to operate


-free high-voltage GIS in Europe to date. SF6


Largest order in Europe


without any climate-harming gases. The 8VN1 type GIS employing Siemens Energy’s SF6


-free


‘Blue’ range was selected for the substation, which will employ vacuum interrupters for switching and clean air as the insulation medium. Commissioning is scheduled for summer 2022. “Fingrid seeks to be a frontrunner when it comes to the replacement of SF6


operations. Modernising the existing SF6


in transmission -


insulated 110 kV switchgear in Virkkala … is the first step on our strategic roadmap towards phasing out SF6


as insulating gas”, said Timo Kiiveri, a senior vp at Fingrid.


Due to its high climate-harming potential and its long atmospheric lifetime, SF6


for most applications, with the exception of is banned


the electricity sector. However, as part of the European Green Deal, the European Commission is currently reviewing the regulation of fluorinated gases. Siemens intends, over the next few years, to implement its clean air technology in various switching components and at higher voltages.


First waste-to-energy plant in Xiaogan, China


Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Environmental & Chemical Engineering Co Ltd, (MHIEC), part of the MHI Group, has delivered two ‘state-of-the-art’ stoker furnaces for a large-scale waste-to-energy (WtE) plant in Xiaogan, Hubei Province, China. This facility has capacity to process around 1500 tonnes of waste a day, and generates 35 MW of electricity using waste heat from the combustion process. A stoker furnace is an incinerator in which waste distributed on a bed of heat-resistant metal castings (a stoker) is dried, heated, and incinerated while being stirred. The


plant, which is operated by Grandblue (Xiaogan) Solid Waste Treatment Co, started commercial operations in January this year, and is the first WtE plant in Xiaogan.


MHIEC has supplied more than 300 waste treatment facilities in Japan and around the world, more than 50 of them in China since the 1980s. What the company describes as the advanced technology provided with this plant gives rise to an enhanced combustion efficiency, allowing for stable treatment of waste with high moisture content.


UK’s first phone app to monitor network assets


SP Energy Networks is creating, in partnership with app developer Minsait, an Indra company, what it believes is a brand new technology. The app, iDentify, recognises network assets and customer devices in a completely new way via the use of artificial intelligence recognition. iDentify is a first in the UK energy industry. It combines smart phone camera and AI technology. Users point their smart phone cameras at the network asset, where the intelligence of the app will then recognise the asset type, use the phone’s own geo-location to determine the asset location, and with one tap on the screen, return the data to the distribution network operator.


The app enables SP Energy Networks to gather asset data information directly via its own field staff, but also enables this asset data to be crowdsourced by third parties, such as those installing low carbon technologies like


electric vehicle charging points and heat pumps. Installers’ use of the app to share the data allows the DNO to remotely assess the impact of these customer devices on the electricity network. SP Energy Networks is also utilising the app technology and data to directly enhance its own customer experience. With the technology the network provider can provide guidance to its customers on faults they may be able to rectify themselves, such as tripped switches. Modernising and streamlining operational processes like this are expected to be important to electricity networks in the future, particularly as the uptake of low carbon technologies continues to grow.


Michael Alexander, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and iDentify project lead at SP Energy Networks, commented: “Following our teams innovative work on the initial iDentify solution, we are looking to expand on the learnings so far and are


38 | May 2021 | www.modernpowersystems.com


now starting to collaborate with other UK based DNOs … to further develop the app capabilities, ensuring its suitability for the entire electricity network.


Finding innovative solutions like this to enhance network visibility, and developing smarter, more agile ways to manage our operations, is critical.”


Dan Clarke, head of Innovation at Energy Networks Association, said: “Every electricity network operator is already supporting the Net Zero transformation, so there’s a real opportunity for the iDentify app to evolve into a standardised method for all installers across the country to use when connecting low carbon technologies to the network. Using an automated process like this is a huge leap forward in the digitalisation of the connections process. It provides access to a more comprehensive view of the electricity network and assets connected to it”.


-free switchgear


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45