Industrial

Industrial MarketOur expertise includes utility intertie substations, unit substations, cogeneration installations, transformers, switchgear, circuit breakers, cable, and motors. We specialize in power system studies, design and protective relaying.

Our knowledge and experience in the areas of power systems design and protection give us the knowledge base to provide quality engineering services. We provide engineering at both grassroots and existing sites. Our study capabilities include short circuit, load flow, motor start, coordination, arc flash, transient analysis, and system stability studies. We have provided design in all industrial power systems areas. We have a relay settings group that has developed settings for literally thousands of relays in the last ten years, most of which are multifunction, microprocessor relays.

Our services for the industrial industry include engineering studies, project studies, electrical design, protective relay calculations and settings, system automation, field services, and training.

Past Projects

Here are just a few sample projects that demonstrate our expertise in the Industrial field.

  • Replaced all 13.8kV switchgear, protective relaying, synchronizing equipment and electrical monitoring at the Powerhouse for a major refinery. Three 30MW steam turbine generators and approximately 50-15kV circuit breakers were included in the project. Also included was the addition of two new utility interties into the new system. The new power system consists of four load buses and one synchronizing bus. Tie reactors are used to keep the fault level below 1000 MVA. The system was constructed while maintaining operation of the generation facility and the loads served. Project cost $11 million.
  • Replaced the electrical system for seven process units using two prefabricated power control centers facilities. The systems included eight transformers with high resistance grounding, 25 medium voltage circuit breakers, 26 low voltage circuit breakers, 37 medium voltage motor starters and 165 low voltage loads. Multilin 750, 745, 239 and 469 relays were used. The system was connected to plant DCS and PI systems for monitoring and control. Project cost $10.6 million.
  • Replaced the electrical system for nine process units using a concrete block substation. The systems included eight transformers with high resistance grounding, 20 medium voltage circuit breakers, 23 low voltage circuit breakers, 14 medium voltage motor starters and approximately 200 low voltage loads. Multilin F60, T60, 239 and M60 relays were used. The system was connected to plant DCS and PI systems for monitoring and control. Project cost $23 million.
  • Power system upgrade at chemical manufacturing facility tripled capacity from a two 10/12.5 MVA 69-4.16kV transformer system to a two 25/33/42 MVA, 69-13.18kV transformer system. The distribution system was upgraded from 4.16kV to 13.8kV. Three 13.8kV substations were installed including 15kV switchgear, 5kV switchgear, 480 volt switchgear, six 7500 KVA transformers and two 2000 KVA transformers. Equipment was sized to minimize the removal of existing equipment and minimize process interruption during cutover. ($10 million)
  • Replaced a 1940s vintage electrical system at a major refinery by replacing/adding nine substations. We added a new 2-25/42MVA transformer utility intertie substation. The system now consists of redundant, normally closed 13.8kV looped distribution system protected by pilot wire and bus differential relays. The system contains approximately 70 medium voltage circuit breakers, 50-480V power circuit breakers, 20 transformers, 30 medium voltage motor starters and 500 low voltage motor starters. Medium voltage motors were fed with cable in conduit, low voltage motors were fed with cable in cable tray. Two 5000 HP propane compressors were added. The project was designed and constructed in a phased approach over approximately 10 years and cost approximately $30 million.
  • Provided engineering for cogeneration project. The main electrical system was completely redesigned as a result of the addition of a 25MW gas turbine generator. The company was originally part of another chemical manufacturing company, but was spun off in the mid 1980s. The system was originally fed from said chemical company’s electrical system. A new customer owned utility intertie was constructed and the existing 13.8kV system was revised and reconnected to provide redundant loops connecting the four main distribution substations. The 13.8kV system is protected pilot wire and bus differential relay systems. A SCADA system was installed to provide remote monitoring and control of the turbine and electrical system ($10 million).
  • Provided engineering to add a new 13.8kV intertie substation and eliminate a 2.4kV/4.16kV intertie substation to the utility. The new intertie substation consisted of 18 medium voltage circuit breakers and re-fed numerous substations by adding transformers. Additionally, four major new substations were added to feed new process units. The existing loads required closed transition transfer while in service, so phasing was critical. An 8,000HP motor was re-fed using a captive transformer. Total project cost approximately $20 million.
  • Provide engineering for design, checkout, and startup compressor motor upgrade. An existing 2500HP single speed motor was increased to a 2500HP/5000HP two speed motor. The motor was connected to a weak electrical system, so capacitor starting was required for the high speed winding. The system was modeled on ETAP and the system was subsequently designed. High prestart voltage and low post start voltage and back to back capacitor switching were major engineering challenges that were met. Two capacitor banks were required for starting to prevent excessive voltage drop throughout the electrical system. A Schweitzer 351 relay was used as a master control relay for sequencing the capacitor and motor circuit breakers and for interlocking the motor circuit breakers.
  • Design, install and maintain Power Monitoring System for a major petrochemical facility. This system uses GE Fanuc PLC hardware and GE Cimplicity HMI software to provide status of plant wide electrical system. The system monitors two main incoming substations, a 115kV Station with six 60MVA transformers and 24 13.8kV distribution breakers, a 230kV Station with six 60MVA transformers and 42 13.8kV breakers and unit distribution substations throughout the plant with local HMI panels. All breaker operations are reported to a central operator along with current system metering. The monitoring system uses fiber optic cable and Ethernet network for backbone communications. Serial RS485 networks and Modbus protocol are used for device communications at unit substations. High speed disturbance recording hardware by Dranetz-BMI is installed on the secondary of all incoming substation transformers. This system captures all power disturbances and notifies plant engineering personnel via email when an event occurs.
  • Design, install and maintain Power Monitoring System for major chemical plant. The system uses GE Fanuc PLC hardware, GE Cimplicity HMI software and ION Enterprise software to provide status of plant wide electrical system. The system monitors four incoming substations connected to a 230kV ring bus with eight transformers and a total of 40 13.8kV distribution breakers. The total monitoring system consists of approximately ninety ION Power meters and forty GE PQM meters. A fiber optic Ethernet network is installed to provide backbone communications for the system. Serial RS485 networks using Modbus and ION protocols are used for device communications at unit substations. Any disturbance in system voltage, sags or swells, is monitored and reported to a central server where the event can be analyzed and logged. Energy usage, kilowatt hours, is recorded from all unit transformers and used to provide a custom billing report each month based on plant cost center allocations. Real-time system trending is provided for all metering data.
  • Install new Generator and Auxiliary metering for two utility owned 800MW generators. An Orion5r communications processor manufactured by Nova Tech and six Schweitzer Engineering Labs 2030 processors were installed to collect metering data from unit protective relays. These relays were micro-processor based relays manufactured by Schweitzer Engineering Labs and Beckwith Electric Co. The Orion5r communications processor was configured to provide all metering data to a Harris D20 RTU using DNP protocol and provide for data collection by the plant DCS system using Modbus protocol.
  • Provided engineering services to assist with the installation and configuration of electrical monitoring system for a major petrochemical facility using Schweitzer Engineering Labs micro processor based relays and SquareD Power Circuit Monitors. This system collected real-time metering data using OPC Server software and provided the data to a server with Cimplicity HMI Software installed. One-Line diagrams of the electrical system are animated with real-time data to provide status of unit substations and electrical system alarms. The Cimplicity HMI software is configured to utilize OPC Server to provide data to the plant Pi system for trending and historical logging.
  • Provided engineering services to assist with the installation and configuration of electrical monitoring system for a major pertrochemical using Schweitzer Engineering Labs micro-processor based relays and GE UR type relays. This system collected real-time metering data using OPC Server software and provided the data to a server with Cimplicity HMI Software installed. One-Line diagrams of the electrical system are animated with real-time data to provide status of unit substation and electrical system alarms. The Cimplicity HMI software is configured to utilize OPC Server to provide data to the plant Pi system for trending and historical logging.
  • Design and install intelligent Load Shed System for a refinery. Plant has 5MW of co-generation. The total plant power usage exceeds the generation capability and requires high speed load shed to maintain operation of the generator if separation from the utility occurs. The load shed system uses Allan –Bradley PLC hardware and Schweitzer Engineering Labs relays and communication processors to collect metering data from loads that can be armed for shedding. The PLC calculates and arms the stages of load shed required. If separation from utility power occurs, the armed stages of load shed are high speed tripped. This tripping is done using fiber optic communications and Schweitzer Engineering Labs remote I/O. Rockwell RSView Software running on a desktop PC provides operator with status of the load shed system as well as metering and status of the plant electrical system.
  • Design, build, install and program Allen-Bradley PLC based flame safety systems, burner management control systems and boiler control systems for (4) – 1,600 PSI, 1,000,000 pound/per hour 100MW generation facility for an alumina plant in Jamaica. This included installation, check-out and start-up of all systems.
  • Provide engineering, design, checkout, and startup of a 15000 HP motor on a major refinery. Installation required starting capacitors to prevent excessive voltage drop throughout the plant during starting. A SEL 351 provided the master control with fiber optic links to remote breakers for control of two capacitor banks, motor starting, and transient analysis studies were required to size equipment, ascertain system voltage and check switching transients.

Markets Served

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