Protection & Control (P&C) recently completed the assembly of a state-of-the-art digital protection system from Schneider Electric for Unit One of the Koeberg nuclear power station in the Western Cape.
The new system, an upgrade of the original analogue system supplied and installed in the 1980’s when the power station was under construction, was factory accepted recently and is due to be installed and commissioned at the end of this year during the scheduled shutdown of Unit One.
The protection system, for which Eskom awarded P&C the contract in late-2022, consists of three protection panels, plus four auxiliary units comprising:
- A panel for 100% stator earth fault,
- A panel for rotor earth fault,
- A panel for CT and VT transformers interface, and
- A panel for the distribution of 24 kV VT secondaries.
“The suite of three protection panels will be integrated with the existing fault recorder panel P&C supplied in 2015, as procured from fault recorder specialist company Novatech of the US,” said, Andre de Jongh, one of P&C’s Design & Commissioning Engineers.
“We’ve designed our system to cater for a future upgrade of the alarm system from the existing analogue system to a fully-fledged digital system,” he added.
The protection upgrade contract applies to both Unit One and Unit Two, with P&C being responsible for designing and assembling the two identical systems, arranging factory acceptance testing, overseeing installation and assisting with commissioning.
“The protection panels for the second generator unit will be manufactured this year, with the full contract due for completion by October 2025,” Andre concluded.