Power Grid commissions India’s 1st 400 KV fully digital substation

New Delhi: State-run Maharatna power PSU, Power Grid has commissioned India's first 400 kV digital substation based on IEC 61850 process bus at Malerkotla, Punjab on December 16, the company said in an official statement on Monday. With this, Power Grid has become one of the very few utilities in the world to retrofit a complete substation with full digital technology.

Power Grid, under its new technology adoption initiative, implemented the state-of-the-art IEC 61850 process bus-based protection automation and control system in retrofitting of conventional control and protection system of a substation commissioned in 1992. Extensive studies and testing carried out at Power Grid's Protection, Automation and Control (PAC) and Real Time Simulation (RTS) labs facilitating improved network design and architecture & multi-vendor IED Interoperability which were recognised for standardisation of various processes in IEC & CIGRE.

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This technology, in an EHV or UHV substation, provides flexibility in engineering, paves the way for faster commissioning, reduced downtime, enhanced diagnostics and ease in troubleshooting during asset management. Also, this helps in reducing environmental footprint with the reduction in requirement of copper cables and civil works.

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