Introduction: A policy for single Digital Bus Bar Protection has been employed on the National Grid UK Transmission network since 2002 either as a replacement system (for duplicated high impedance schemes) or for all new build double bus bar substations. These systems have a distributed architecture with remote bay units (interfacing to the plant) for each protected circuit with ruggedized cross site fibre connections to a central processing unit. Where a substation has a centralised relay room (e.g. GIS) layout, the bay units are colocated in a suite of cubicles and connected with a network of fibre patch cords.

Objectives:

This R&D Project aims to deliver an evaluation and desk top design solution of an alternative digital bus bar solution architecture. This will help formulate a future technical and procurement strategy for bus bar protection, potentially leading to a pilot installation, evaluation and deployment as a replacement (or new) bus bar protection system. 

Expected Benefits: This project will be successful when it reviews designs and products used by other utilities for adoption on the UK Transmission system. Further success is an option to install a viable digital bus bar protection system.