Reliability in demand: Siemens to supply new network control system to DB Energie
Erlangen, Germany, 2010-Sep-13
Following an invitation to tender issued by the European Union Siemens Energy secured an order in early May 2010 to supply a new network control system based on its Spectrum Power 4 system. Purchaser is DB Energie GmbH based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The network control system is planned for deployment in the 110-kilovolt main system control center in Frankfurt am Main and the alternate control station in Limburg an der Lahn. All of the approximately 180 DB Energie substations and 50 generating stations will be controlled country-wide from the system control center in Frankfurt. Siemens technology as a key system component will thus contribute toward the high reliability of the German traction power supply system, which was more than 99 percent in 2009.
To be able to meet the particular requirements of the country-wide traction power supply network in Germany, Siemens Energy has developed a special control system solution based on its Spectrum Power 4 system. Numerous functions are provided for the 110-kV traction power network (16.7 Hz) in addition to the classic "operation and monitoring" function. These include comprehensive network analysis packages and a training simulator, which simulates responses after switching operations and can be used both for training purposes and disturbance analyses. The central features of the energy management functions are packages for power plant optimization and control of the 16.7-Hz traction power network. To reduce the work load on the operator of such a system following network disturbances, linking of the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system of the control system to the maintenance planning SAP PM was part of the order awarded to Siemens. The Siemens Spectrum Power 4 network control system operates as pure Unix system next to a platform-independent user interface similar to Windows. The requirements on the energy management functions of the network control system are met by sophisticated standard solutions, for example for power plant optimization.
