London Underground has initiated an extensive power upgrade program for the 11 and 22 kilovolt (kV) power networks serving London Underground's SSR lines. The program was initiated to meet the increased demand and reliability for the power supply, as 192 new air-conditioned trains get introduced on the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines. The new trains in the fleet will enable London Underground to provide more frequent and reliable passenger services.
To meet the upgrade requirements, ABB is delivering a medium-voltage solution built on replacing the existing time-expired switchgear with ABB's primary air-insulated UniGear ZS1 and gas-insulated ZX2 switchgear. To ensure continued power supply, ABB proposed an authentic IEC 61850 solution to ensure full compatibility with the other switchgear on the network and ease of integration into the London Underground SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system.
ABB's high-performing solution is based on the compact and powerful protection and control functionality available when combining the leading-edge Relion® protection relays and the modern primary medium-voltage switchgears. To strengthen the solution and specifically protect the substation busbars, an electrical conductor in a substation through which power is distributed, the cost-efficient and compact busbar protection relay REB611 was incorporated into the protection solution.
The high performance of this solution is achieved thanks to the compatibility and flexibility of all the devices used. The solution is built on the IEC 61850 standard for power system automation to ensure power system reliability and performance.
