Student Project: Pump Station for Sunnhordaland Kraftlag
Sunnhordland is a traditional district in the western part of Norway, consisting of the southern, coastal regions of the county of Hordaland, from the mouth of the Hardangerfjord and outwards to the Atlantic Ocean. [1]
During the spring of 2011 a diploma project is being carried out at Aventi Technology by students from the Bachelor Program in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Oslo University College. The members of the group project are Christer Skogstrand, Arild Apeland and Sindre Strømøy.
The objective is to create and design a pumping station control system. The pumping stations are used to control oil filled submarine power cables. The customer, Sunnhordland Kraftlag, wants to upgrade the pumping stations for two of their submarine cables. The goal is that the control system can be used in the commissioning of the pumping station during the summer of 2012. The solution for the new stations will be a concept/standard for the upgrading of pumping stations both in Norway and abroad.
The control system consists of Allen-Bradley PLC’s programmed with Rockwell Software RSLogix 5000. In addition to this the project group will design a HMI (Human Machine Interface) that will be operated remotely by GPRS as well as from a control center. A simulator in LabVIEW will also be developed to be used in a FAT (Factory Acceptance Test).
Oil filled cables are underwater high-voltage cables used to transport voltages up to 525.00 VAC. The cable uses layers of paper and oil as insulation and to prevent sea water making contact with the cable. The pumping stations are there to keep the right amount of pressure to the oil used in the cables. The cables have a range of up to 50 km and they are the only underwater cables that can be used for voltages above 420,000 VAC.