 |
La Plata Electric Association; Durango, CO
Customer Response:
“La Plata currently had a SCADA system installed, with RTUs
in every substation. We wanted to extend the SCADA system down
the line from the substations, but the cost of applying RTUs was
quite high. The Telemetric T422 units provided a very cost-effective
way to gain down line control and indication. All you need at
the field location is cellular phone coverage. Installation of
the T422 unit is straightforward and setting up our password-protected
access on Telemetric's web site was easy. We are happy with the
Telemetric T422 units and are planning to install more of them
in strategic locations on our distribution system.”
– David
Gebhardt
Customer:
La Plata Electric Association, Durango, Colorado
- Their 3,370 square mile service territory includes all of La
Plata and Archuleta counties, and portions of Hinsdale, Mineral
and San Juan counties.
- Transmission System: 188.29 miles of high voltage transmission
line and one substation
- Distribution System: 2,807 miles of distribution line and 28 substations.
- La Plata provides power to customers such as farms, ranches,
irrigation, residential, commercial, light industrial, oil and
gas pumping, snow making and street lighting.
- 117 full-time employees: 97 in the Durango headquarters and
20 in the Pagosa District office.
Application:
- La Plata Electric Association was seeking a way to automate
the monitoring and control of some equipment in their service
area. They began with three applications:
- Controlling and monitoring a disconnect switch
- Controlling and monitoring a mobile substation
- Monitoring the MAS radio transmitters for their SCADA system
Solution Alternatives:
In the past, La Plata had to carry out these tasks by sending
someone out to monitor the situation and carry out control actions.
Solution:
Telemetric MicroRTUs can wirelessly monitor and control equipment
throughout La Plata’s service area.
Advantages:
- The Telemetric MicroRTUs are very a low cost solution, especially
when compared to the cost of a SCADA RTU.
- The cellular communication channel gives the MicroRTU an extremely
wide coverage area. The MicroRTU can be used anywhere in North
America where there is cellular coverage, and there is no need
to purchase local cellular service.
- The MicroRTU is easy to install and requires no additional infrastructure.
- Data from the MicroRTU can be easily accessed on the web site,
and customized alarm notifications can also be quickly and easily
created.
DETAILS
Disconnect Switch:
The first MicroRTU installed by La Plata Electric was used to
monitor and control a high voltage three-phase switch. A Telemetric
T422 was installed outside the enclosure for the motor that controls
the switch. An input and an output from the MicroRTU were connected
to the switch motor, allowing the MicroRTU to monitor the switch
position and change the switch position as needed for fault isolation
or maintenance. La Plata Electric is now able to view and change
the switch position directly from the Telemetric web site.
Mobile Substation:
A second MicroRTU is being used to monitor and control La Plata
Electric’s mobile substation. The MicroRTU monitors the
transformer and the low-side circuit breaker and reports the data
back to the web site. One MicroRTU output is also connected to
the low-side circuit breaker so that it can be controlled from
the web site if necessary. This gives La Plata some basic SCADA
capability when the mobile substation is put into use.
Radio Transmitter:
Two MicroRTU are installed on La Plata’s remote radio tower
outside Durango, Colorado. The MicroRTU’s monitoring the
radio transmitters for fail over to the backup transmitter. As
soon as the transmitter switches over to the backup transmitter,
the MicroRTU sees the contact closure and sends an immediate report
that the backup transmitter is in use. This allows maintenance
personnel to take action before a problem occurs.
|
