remi visit report

8/2/2019 REMI Visit Report

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DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

SHAH & ANCHOR KUTTCHI ENGINEERING COLLEGE

REPORT ON VISIT TO

RELIANCE ENERGY MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE

(REMI) AT SEEPZ, ANDHERI

Date of visit: 15.9.2008 Professors in charge:Professor Kirit Oza

Professor Vibhanshu Gupta

Objective of the visit:


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With a view to give hands on experience and real world exposure to

the first ever batch of MMS students at Shah & Anchor College, the

visit to REMI was arranged with an objective to showcase to students

how Reliance Energy has changed the face of the power generation,

transmission and distribution after it took over the reins from the

public sector undertaking BSES and to relate the concepts learnt in

class to practical application.

Schedule of events:

The visit was divided into 3 sessions:

Session 1: Overview of REL and its transmission center by Mr. Sahani

Session 2: Visit to Aarey receiving station and switchyard by Mr. Ayyaz

Mannar

Session 3: SCADA & DMS project by Mr. Bhushan Chaudhari

Session 1


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Overview of REL and its transmission center by Mr. Sahani

Overview of REL:

Reliance Energy (formerly BSES in Mumbai) engaged in the generation,

transmission and distribution of electricity.

A key constituent of the Reliance - Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, India's third

largest business house, Reliance Energy is India's foremost private sector

utility with aggregate group revenues of Rs. 13,017 crore (US$ 3 billion) and

total assets of Rs. 12,166 crore (US$ 2.80 billion).

Reliance Energy companies distribute more than 28 billion units of electricity

to cover 25 million consumers across different parts of the country including

Mumbai and Delhi in an area that spans over 1,24,300 sq. kms. It generates

941 MW of electricity, through its power stations located in Maharashtra,

Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Goa.

Reliance Energy has emerged as one of the leading players in India in the

Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) segment of the power

sector.

Reliance Energy companies currently pursue several gas, coal, wind and

hydro-based power generation projects in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh,

Arunachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal with aggregate capacity of over 13,510

MW. These projects are at various stages of development.

Reliance Energy is also active in the trading and transmission of power,

making it a fully integrated player in the power sector.

Reliance Energy has also forayed as an equity investor in to the infrastructure

business, including in the prestigious Mumbai metro rail project and various

road projects of the National Highways Authority of India.


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RELs sites:

Our visit was to the transmission facility at Aarey, Mumbai which was

commissioned in 1996 by the erstwhile BSES. The entire network of the

electricity starts at Dahanu where electricity is generated at the 2x250

MW multi fuel based thermal power plant and it is stepped down at

various stages until it finally reaches the consumer at 3 phase 440 V or

2 phase 230 V. The following diagram will illustrate the same:


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REL Mumbai:


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REL has 2.5 million customers in their Mumbai circle which has an

aggregate demand of 1100 MW. REL supplies electricity generated

through its Dahanu plant (500MV), 310 MV from the Tata Power

Company and remaining is by MSETL (Maharashta State Energy

Transmission Co. Ltd. ) The facility at Aarey comprises of 59 executives

and 48 non-executive workers.

With a projected increase in demand to 1750 MW in the next 2-3 years,

REL is building upon its own power generation strengths and expects

an average growth rate of 4 %. It has already received MERCs

approval for 5 out of 8 projects totaling to an investment of Rs. 3000

3500 crores.

After taking over from BSES, the major challenge was to improve the

quality of power supplied to the consumer keeping in mind the

demands of the consumer and the competition building up in the

power sector. REL laid emphasis on condition based maintenance from

periodic and preventive maintenance and was able to improve in three

key areas viz Tripping, System availability and Power loss.

Tripping in the system have come down to 10 (2007) from 27 (2005)

and the overall system availability has increased to 99.55% (2007-

2008) from 98.24% (2005-2006) against the MERC benchmark of 98%.

The power loss has also come down from 1.99 % (2005) to 1.84 %

(2007) which is among the least in the country. REL now aims for

increased reliability to meet growing demand and is planning to source

bulk power from new sources.


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Operations and Maintenance activities:

REL believes that the quality of power that it supplies should be the

best. Any breakdowns in the system not only lead to large scale

disruptions for the consumers but also a loss of revenue for REL as it

loses out on units that could have been billed. Emphasis is being laid to

preventive maintenance to avoid major breakdowns and improve the

quality of power supply by performing the following activities:

1. Use of SFRA adopted cariograph which indicates the state and

condition of the equipment.

2. REL has imported Auto Tan Delta kits to detect faulty equipment.

3. DGA Dissolved Gas Analysis is performed to measure gases in

the transformer, analyse them and detect the fault, if any. The

project to convert DGA into Online DGA is in progress.

4. All manual relays have been replaced by numerical relays

without any shutdown in the system which is a remarkable feat.

5. In order to check loose connections that may cause short circuits

and tripping in the system, they use Thermo-vision cameras

which show the maintenance personnel the areas where excess

heat is being formed. In case of such findings, the team checks

the connections on the spot and tightens them. This avoids major

disruptions in the system.

6. REL also has sufficient imported technology which helps them to

carry out HOTLINE maintenance of the 220KV and 33 KV lines.

HOTLINE maintenance ensures that the lines are not shutdownand maintenance is carried out on live wires.


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7. The huge towers that carry the wires from the plant to the

consumers also require regular maintenance as any breakdown

in power will result into a major shutdown that will take a lot of

time to be restored. There are 5 main areas in tower

maintenance viz.

(i) Public campaign to create awareness about the towers

and their safety.

(ii) Restructuring the towers and reinforcing them with

safety barriers.

(iii) Barricading the towers to prevent unauthorized access.

(iv) Installing anti-climbing devices to prevent humans from

climbing the towers, especially in rural areas.

(v) Removal of bird nests as they cause short circuits.

The session was concluded with a question answer session from the

eager audience and the students moved onto the switchyard.


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Session 2

Visit to Aarey receiving station and switchyard by Mr. Ayyaz

Mannar


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Note: All pictures taken from RELs website

The switchyard is a very secure area in the receiving station and safety

to personnel and safety to equipment is paramount. The entire

switchyard area is earthed well and has the latest automatic fire-fighting equipment with manual overrides. To prevent lightening

strikes, there are lightening masks which are tall towers similar to the

ones used on high rise buildings.


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Session 3

SCADA & DMS project by Mr. Bhushan

Chaudhari

SCADA is the acronym for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition,

an integrated data management system used by REL that enables it to

control and co-ordinate sub-station equipment from remote locations

in real time.

An integrated SCADA comprises of a system that control generation,

transmission and distribution as well. The integrated SCADA is a

relatively new installation provided by technology and infrastructure

major ABB (Asea Brown Boveri). Earlier, REL used 2 separate systems;

Siemens SCADA for transmission and ABB SCADA for distribution. The

decision to shift to integrated SCADA was to enhance co-ordination and

facilitate faster response time to faults.


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Pre-SCADA scenario:

During the pre-SCADA scenario, the situation was very different. The

company, with its huge area of operations, had local engineers for its

150 receiving stations with manual controls at each station. The

logging of the transformer data relating to its condition etc was

periodic and manual. Storage and retrieval of the manual data was

very cumbersome.

In case of any fault, the concerned engineer had to inform the control

room and then proceed to the concerned receiving station and work in

unsafe conditions unaware of the exact nature of the fault.

Continuous monitoring of the transformers was also not possible and

hence no variations in the system could be detected. This always

resulted in the information coming in after the fault.

The above factors always resulted into slower response times for

faults, lack of prevention for faults and loss of revenue due to system

shutdown. This situation warranted a centralized system that could

eliminate all the shortcomings and function with improved efficiency

and handle larger volumes of data.


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Post SCADA scenario:

With the advent of SCADA, the entire operations of the company have

become streamlined, efficient and can handle much larger volumes.

Now, the area served by REL is divided into 5 major zones with 1

engineer for one zone. This has eliminated the need for local on-site

engineers for each zone.

The entire area is displayed on huge screens on the control centre and

it is possible to pin point the location of each receiving station.

The Aarey receiving facility also comprises of two state of the art

centres; Main Control Centre (MCC) and Backup Control Centre (BCC).

These centres are fully computerized and have ensured faster

response times to any fault and detection of faults before breakdowns.

The SCADA is connected to all substations with fibre optic cables and

also uses the CDMA network for other purposes. SCADA is also

integrated with SAP, ERP, Customer information system and Billing

system to provide a complete integration of the entire system to

ensure better facilitation and co-ordination.

Due to the introduction of SCADA, it is now possible to monitorinformation real time and pre-empt faults.

SCADA also ensures better voltage control and prevents under voltage

and over voltage. This helps to monitor equipment overloading.


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Response times are faster as it is easier to locate faults, isolate them

and restore power supply.

SCADA also provides an auto load shedding scheme and islanding

diagram based on real time data.

Since the entire system is computerized, access to logs of

maintenance is very easy and storage capacity is exponentially high.

This assists effective system planning as data availability is easier.


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Distribution Management System (DMS):

DMS is the Distribution Management System that is part of the SCADA

that assists in the proper and optimum distribution of loads all over the

system. The system is automated to locate faults.

REL has also been able to automate 20% of the substations with the

help of DMS. The maintenance of substations is also easier due to

better monitoring.

DMS consists of a Fault passage indicator which shows where the fault

is passing which helps in isolating it. This reduces the interruption time

on the system.

Since the faults are pre-detected in most cases, the number of test

charges taken is very less. This ensures that equipment is subjected to

lesser stress.

Daily reports are prepared to ensure all equipment is functioning

optimally and pre-fault R, Y, B data is analysed.

The entire SCADA & DMS system is ISO 27001 certified for security

management which makes REL the only company to have such a

certificate.

On this positive note, Mr. Bhushan concluded his exhilarating lecture

on SCADA & DMS which had left the students spellbound.

The event was concluded with a vote of thanks and followed by

sumptuous lunch.

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