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23 September 2003 - American Superconductor Corporation , an electricity solutions company, today announced that its D-VAR (Dynamic Volt-Ampere-Reactive) transmission grid reliability system would provide critical voltage support to the electric power grid for Scotland's Orkney Islands.
Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), the local grid owner and operator, awarded the contract to American Superconductor and their construction partners on this project, U.K.-based Kelvin Construction Company.
"Ensuring the reliability of the electric power grid serving the Orkney Islands is our number one priority," said Mike Barlow, System Manager, SSE. "American Superconductor analyzed our grid system and provided a solution tailored to our needs. Their D-VAR system is a proven solution that offers high performance, cost-effective voltage support. Installing the D-VAR system will enable us to better protect our grid from voltage fluctuations and safely increase the amount of electric power supplied to the grid by the Orkney wind farms as they develop over the next years."
American Superconductor's D-VAR system will be used to protect the Orkney Islands' power supply from critical contingency events such as the loss of one of the two 33 kilovolt (kV) underwater power cables that serve the islands. In addition, the D-VAR system will be used to stabilize the SSE power grid, which is susceptible to voltage swings caused by the Orkney wind farms. Although wind farms are an important source of renewable electrical power, their inherently intermittent generation cycles and consumption of reactive power, which is needed by power grids to ensure stable operation, can create voltage instability problems. AMSC's D-VAR system actively monitors and mitigates voltage irregularities and enables the safe operation of wind farms on electrical power grids.
"We are pleased that SSE chose our D-VAR solution to help them meet the unique challenges of providing reliable power transmission to the Orkney Islands," said Chuck Stankiewicz, vice president and general manager of the Power Electronic Systems business unit at American Superconductor. "Our D-VAR systems ensure that critical voltage issues are detected and corrected safely and immediately. With D-VAR systems in place, utilities can rest assured that the voltage of the power provided to customers is stable and reliable, regardless of demand, unexpected grid events or whether the wind is blowing."
The AMSC grid reliability solution for SSE will be installed at the Scorradale substation and includes a D-VAR unit and two switched shunt capacitors that will be controlled by the D-VAR system. The Orkney Islands are interconnected to each other and to the Scottish mainland by underwater power cables. The D-VAR solution will actively manage voltage levels on the Orkney power grid, as well as mitigate the adverse affects on the grid of wind generation. The Orkney power grid has a load capacity of 32 megawatts (MW) and serves more than 10,000 customers.
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