Control Buildings To Go: PG&E takes the next step in substation automation

摘要

THE CONCEPT OF MODULAR, PROTECTION, AUTOMATION AND CONTROL (MPAC) BUILDINGS is to provide highly integrated, well-engineered, preassembled control buildings to a site either for retrofitting existing substations or for new substations. A substation automation system is contained within an MPAC building to collect information and provide local control, monitoring and communication to the switching centers. During the past four years, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E; San Francisco, California, U.S.) has completed 10 pilot projects, including the installation of several MPAC buildings. Based on the lessons learned, PG&E is moving forward to further refine the design of the MPAC building projects. In addition, the utility has reviewed in detail the data collection and communication to the switching centers to define the critical data to be shared. In fact, PG&E simplified the system automation architecture within the MPAC building, reducing database complexity, providing faster data updates and streamlining troubleshooting and testing.