Speaker

1
Protecting Ice Melting Westmans Distribution
Lines

• Speaker
• Scott Whaley - EIT

2
Western Distribution Region

• The western distributions head office is located
  in Brandon
• There is currently five engineers helping
  maintain and develop the western distribution
  area
• Distribution system consists of
• 4 kV (kilo volts) , 8kV, 12kV and 25kV power
  lines
• Sub-transmission system consists of
• 33kV and 66kV power lines

3
Distribution Infrastructure

• Hydro has approximately 150 stations in Western
  Manitoba
• Standard metal and wood sub stations
• New DSC stations
• There are over 500 feeders in Western Manitoba
  to protect
• Length of feeders vary to being very short in
  urban areas and can be quite long (20 miles) in
  rural locations

4
Distribution Infrastructure

• Distribution protection starts at the high side
  fuse/breaker at the station transformer and
  includes all distribution power lines up to the
  customer service transformer

Station Transformer
Distribution Power Lines
Customer Service
5
Protective Equipment

• Reclosers (ACR)
• Automatic circuit recloser
• Use electronic hydraulic
• Sectionalizers
• Detect current pulses to trip
• Fuses
• Expulsion fuses and current limiting fuses
• Circuit Breakers
• Mechanical circuit breakers

6
Protective Equipment

• FAULTED CIRCUIT INDICATERS (FCI) are installed on
  distribution lines where standard protective
  device such as an ACR, fuse or sectionalizer can
  not be installed
• FCIs are installed to eliminate the need to
  repeatedly test and energize U/G cables when
  there is a fault. This prevents permanent damage
  to the cable
• Aid In troubleshooting

7
Equipment Coordination

• Protective equipment must be properly set to
  allow for feeder coordination
• Protective equipment provides safety and
  reliability to both the customer and employees
  and helps locate line faults
• We install protective devices to prevent
  equipment damage

8
Protecting Distribution Lines
Down line Recloser
Fuses
Regulator
Station Recloser
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Protecting Distribution Lines EXAMPLE
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Protecting Distribution Lines EXAMPLE
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Protecting Distribution Lines EXAMPLE

• Fault current of 400 amps
• 50 amps ACR 2A2B
• Time for fast trip 0.05 secs.
• Time for slow trip 0.32 secs.
• Fault current of 400 amps
• Station ACR MT 240 amps, 2N2E
• Time for fast trip 0.22 secs.
• Time for slow trip 4.30 secs.

12
Protecting Distribution Lines

• If we issue protection coordination setting
  correctly we can prevent damage to equipment
• MB Hydro has implemented standards for
  installing, protecting and rating equipment.
  These standards prevent damage to our
  infrastructure and reduce customer outages

13
Standards Drawing of a 1Ø Transformer
14
Ice Melting

• Ice melting is done by purposely placing a fault
  on a feeder. The line fault creates tremendous
  heat which melts the bonded ice.
• Each ice melt done on a distribution line must be
  calculated differently because line impedance
  predetermines the fault current values
• Length, conductor size,
• temperature and time must
• all be taken into account
• when melting

15
Ice Rolling

• Manually using ice rollers to remove built up ice
  on the power lines. The process is slow and time
  consuming and takes at least ½ hour to do 1 mile.

16
Ice Prone Areas

• Ice melting is
• incorporated into
• Hydros standards

17
Ice Detection System

• The system is built using an infrared camera to
  capture images of the conductor. It calculates
  and notifies staff if there is ice build up on
  the line
• The ice vision system uses an embedded computer
  with custom designed software to perform the ice
  monitoring calculations
• A web based application displays information
  which includes
• Ice build up (thickness) on the conductor
• Temperature
• Wind Speed

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Ice Detection Camera

• Every second represents 30 minutes

19
Thank You

• Questions
• and
• Comments

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