Overview

pMedium Voltage products, solutions and services/p pABB provides a full range of medium voltage solutions for the utility, industrial and commercial customers with safe, reliable and smart technologies for the distribution of electricity./p p The extensive global offering includes distribution automation products, switching, limiting, measuring and sensing devices, switchgear, modular substation packages and related services./p

Supernova Award Category

Tech Optimization and Modernization

The Problem

pBusiness Challenge: Reducing the Complexity and Cost of Control and Protection For power generation and distribution companies, preventing, detecting, and mitigating faults is critical to avoid service interruptions and damage to the grid. To ensure continuity and immediate response, each substation feeder requires its own protection relay—one hardware device for each feeder plus more for redundancy. With typically 20 feeders per substation, but potentially up to 100, management, maintenance, upgrades, and replacements are frequent and costly. For example, commissioning time for upgrading a package of just two relays can cost as much as USD 7,000-15,000. Even routine maintenance can cost USD 600-1,200 per relay. It’s also expensive to secure so many assets. Above all, workers must be protected. The easier it is to identify, head off, and fix problems, the safer it is for field technicians to do their work./p

The Solution

pABB has developed an Intel®-powered software-driven solution that consolidates multiple protection relays into one device. This greatly reduces the number of protection relays needed and the total costs that go with them. It supports the growing need for uninterrupted service and offers the agility of digitalization to meet the demands on today’s utility companies. Powered by Intel® Xeon® processors, SSC600 is a flexible, scalable solution that reduces security management costs and capital and operational expenses, while enabling visibility and easy access to valuable data./p

The results

pSSC600 centralizes all protection and control functionality in a single device at the substation level. This new approach reduces network complexity and supports optimal, lifelong asset management for the digital substation. The device is IEC 61850-compliant, designed for interoperability with existing substation systems. Intel Xeon processors deliver the performance needed to handle all the consolidated functions in real time—supported by multi-threading and cache allocation technology from Intel, which also gives system designers flexibility to fine-tune to their specific application needs.br /  /p

Metrics

pSolution Benefits • Multi-application coverage with one device for reduced CAPEX, OPEX, and security management costs • Responsive, reliable performance from Intel Xeon processors • Maximum flexibility and scalability over substation lifetime • Easy and efficient power distribution process management • Visibility and easy access to valuable data/p

The Technology

pSSC600 is equally suitable for retrofitting substations and for new installations. Adding SSC600 to an existing installation is an excellent way to provide the entire substation with the latest technological developments within protection and control. After integrating SSC600, the existing protection relays will serve as backup protection. New installations will only need bay-level merging units in addition to SSC600./p

Disruptive Factor

pWith SSC600 comes a new era of centralized control and protection that reflects the general move of businesses in all industries to digitalization, modernization, and workload consolidation. ABB and Intel are bringing their technology leadership and expertise together, creating the next  generation of products to meet the needs of utilities now  and into the future./p

Shining Moment

pCaruna*, the largest electricity distribution system operator in Finland, was looking for a flexible and future-proof solution for their network. As they invested more heavily in weatherproofing, underground cabling was added. ”SSC600 is an interesting approach to network control and protection: consolidating multiple relays into one device reduces network complexity and also offers effective ways to control protection functions of the network./p