EDS HV GROUP COMPLETE ESSENTIAL SUBSTATION MAINTENANCE WORK AT RHYL FLATS (UK)

MAINTENANCE TEAM MOBILISED QUICKLY DURING THE PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN WITH THE JOB COMPLETED IN TWO DAYS

EDS HV Group completed the substation maintenance works at RWE Renewables offshore wind farm, Rhyl Flats during the COVID-19 lockdown all while adhering to government guidelines and strict social distancing measures. Every electrical asset at the substation required maintenance, including 132kV open mesh switches, power transformers, auxiliary transformers, battery systems, shunt reactors and all 33kV switchgear panels. This was a detailed and complex job, but for EDS HV the project was completed successfully within two days ensuring the wind farm’s continued generation of renewable energy.

Rauri Maguire, Operations and Maintenance Engineer, EDS HV said;

“RWE Renewables have an Operations and Maintenance contract in place with EDS HV for full high voltage network management at Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm. This means it’s our responsibility to plan scheduled maintenance activities in conjunction with our client and other stakeholders effectively. By keeping in contact with the distribution network operator we scheduled our maintenance activities around a planned network outage, therefore successfully maximising network availability by making effective use of an existing outage.”

As part of EDS HV’s commitment to training and development, accompanying the five-strong engineering team, were two trainee Control Engineers. The trainees were given hands-on experience during the maintenance campaign by working alongside the Senior Authorised Persons (SAP) within the team. They experienced first-hand the various practical steps taken by the SAPs in the application of Safety from the System to facilitate the maintenance activities.

Maguire, continued; 

“Control Engineers in a centralised Control Centre setting are rarely exposed to site operations as their job involves coordinating operational and safety activities on the high voltage network from the Control Centre. Having a fuller understanding of site operations and other environment factors that SAPs deal with as part of their role is vital for the development of our Control Engineers as they continuously work in partnership within their colleagues across our portfolio on a daily basis.

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