The Portuguese transmission system operator REN continues to trust on Efacec Automation products and solutions, reliance that results in new projects and remodeling of existing ones. Last February 2013, a new reference was added to the Efacec Automation portfolio, being successfully concluded the installation of automation system featuring protection and control in the Valpaços transmission substation (220/60 kV).

The Valpaços substation is integrated in the REN transmission network in the north of Portugal, in the Vila Real district, with a triple bus-bar topology for 220 kV and double bus-bar topology for 60 kV.

The supply, turn-key type, included project, configuration, test and installation supervision and commissioning of the automation system, based on the CLP 500SAS platform, integrating protection relays from Efacec and third parties.

Regarding communications, at the substation level, for communication between station servers and bay units was implemented fiber optic LAN network, for communications with protection relays is used IEC 60870-5-103 protocol. The substations system communicates with SCADA superior system located in the REN dispatch is performed through IEC 60870-5-101 protocol. All equipment for supervision and control system is synchronized via SNTP and for protection system via IRIG-B.

The control system implemented in the substation enables operations like sequential control, zero voltage switch, interlocking, synchronized close, slow reclosing, alarms grouping, frequency shedding, and transformer voltage control. With implemented protection system it’s possible to execute the following functions: distance protection, differential protection, reclosing and synchronism, remote protection, circuit breaker failure, bus-bar protection, among others.

This project confirms, ones again, REN’s preference in Efacec solutions and services, showing this way recognition and confidence putted in our automation solutions.

Furthermore, during 2012 REN had registered an historical mark in terms of power quality service, having achieved an average interruption time at the level of zero seconds. This indicator shows interruptions at the transmission network superior than 3 minutes. Efacec Automation is very pleased to contribute for this purpose, and consequently to contribute in providing a better quality service to the customers.