© Azienda Elettrica Ticinese (AET)
For 60 years, Azienda Elettrica Ticinese (AET) a public company founded in 1958 by the Canton of Ticino has been producing and trading electricity. From a humble beginning, AET now produces power from its six hydropower plants in the Swiss Alps as well as from its numerous photovoltaic plants. AET also transports and trades the power it produces, with profits flowing back to the Cantonal government and, thus, the citizens of the canton.
AET turned to ABB for power protection equipment to ensure energy availability and power continuity to the sensitive parts of its hydroelectric power plants. After careful analysis, the decision was made to install the DPA UPScale modular uninterruptible power supply (UPS).
The modular architecture of the DPA UPScale fulfills all AET’s requirements: high energy availability, UPS product standardization, power quality, flexibility and high efficiency designed for medium-power applications. This UPS delivers modular power protection in a single, industry-standard frame. Its flexible design provides a ‘pay-as-you-grow’ model so there is no need to oversize the original configuration as power modules can be added when required, without any footprint penalty.
ABB’s Ticino UPS Sales Manager, Renzo Salmina, comments. "We are very proud to have been chosen to design and deliver the energy continuity protection system at AET. We are delighted to be able to share our know-how and make our solutions with their proven reliability available to this project.”
The customer also liked the easy installation and maintenance servicing is easy as modules can be replaced without powering down that assured continuity of their critical processes. Cost of ownership is low, relative to comparable solutions, and the ABB brand and the fact that the UPS is made in Switzerland underline the quality aspects of the product.
By standardizing the offer on 20 kW UPS modules, it was possible to find a suitable solution for the first two AET hydroelectric plants. At the Nuova Biaschina plant, which produces around 380 GWh per year, seven 20 kW modules have been installed in parallel. These modules have been fitted in an ST 200 cabinet, ensuring the energy supply is protected to sensitive loads of up to 120 kW with redundancy N+1, or 140 kW.
The configuration at the Piottino plant, which produces an average of 310 GWh per year, consists of an ST120 cabinet, where six 20 kW modules have been installed in parallel, guaranteeing a protected energy supply of up to 100 kW with redundancy N+1, or 120 kW.
The excellent collaboration and professionalism of AET's operators ensured that the migration from the old UPS systems to the DPA UPScale modular UPS was hitch-free.
