S&C Electric Co. is deploying a new service offering to remotely monitor S&C’s Wind Turbine Style Vista Switchgear. This new service was used on Vista switchgear at Infigen Energy’s 50 MW Kumeyaay Wind Farm, located 65 miles east of San Diego in Boulevard, Calif.
Infigen uses Vista switchgear in the base of all 25 of the 2 MW wind turbines at its Kumeyaay Wind Farm. S&C had a contract for inspections and testing of the equipment, which required an S&C field service technician to travel to the site.
The technician would then test the relays and associated hardware, verify relay settings and report on the fault events that the relays had detected. After S&C established its Global Support and Monitoring Center, Infigen became interested in more frequent and less costly equipment maintenance through remote monitoring services, assuring that any problems don’t go unnoticed for an extended period.
S&C’s engineers designed a solution that uses local communications and sources of power to establish a secure connection with relays used in the Vista switchgear. The same relays that S&C technicians would test in the field can now be accessed through S&C’s Global Support and Monitoring Center at any time.
Installation on the first group of wind turbines took just two days and required minimal downtime for each turbine. S&C is now providing Infigen with monthly inspection and testing reports. In addition, the monthly reports provide Infigen with documented verification of the relay settings helping with on-site operational safety.
