NOJA Power OSM Reclosers provide crucial connection in Tasmanian energy challenge

In response to Tasmania’s recent energy challenge, NOJA Power’s OSM Reclosers were deployed as part of a rapid response switchgear installation to allow connection of temporary diesel generation.

In late 2015, Basslink – the undersea energy interconnector between Tasmania and the Australian mainland – was interrupted at a time when drought had left the largely hydro-powered island state of Tasmania with declining energy storages. In a demonstration of organizational agility, TasNetworks supported Hydro Tasmania’s response, which included rapid deployment of a large array of containerized diesel generation at six sites across the state. NOJA Power worked on an installation in Tasmania’s remote north-west. This generation bank consisted of 48MW of mobile generators. NOJA Power’s reclosers were the crucial link between this generation and the Tasmanian grid.

Whilst the repairs of Basslink were taking place, Hydro Tasmania and the Tasmanian Government developed and implemented an Energy Supply Plan to ensure Tasmanian demand could be met under challenging circumstances. This plan was implemented with invaluable support from TasNetworks, numerous contractors and consultants and – in part - involved the large scale deployment of diesel generators at selected sites.

NOJA Power OSM Reclosers were selected as the connection point for the remote generation. The simplicity of an integrated switchgear solution, which combines protection, metering and control in conjunction with the standard switchgear was the logical choice for connection. With load and source side Voltage Sensors, Current Transformers and frequency monitoring capability, the OSM series recloser allows utilities to monitor all critical requirements for remote generation connection. The OSM Recloser is combined with the NOJA Power RC-10 controller, which is provided standard with cogeneration protection elements, such as Neutral Voltage Displacement, Negative Phase Sequence Voltage and Current and ANSI25 Synchrocheck, along with the conventional distribution level protection such as Overcurrent and Earth Fault.

Given the time constraints associated with the deployment of temporary diesel generation, the installation was executed swiftly by the field teams who are experienced in operating the OSM Recloser in traditional overhead reticulation schemes. Integration into control and SCADA schemes was also seamlessly executed. Whilst in this application a standard overhead installation was used, NOJA Power also provide Ground Mount Kiosk variants of their OSM series Reclosers which allow for Dead-Break elbow connection and Earth switch installation at remote generation sites.

“One of the significant advantages of the NOJA Power OSM Reclosers is they are a complete integrated solution providing protection, communications data logging and remote control in a single engineered solution that can be deployed rapidly in rapid deployment situations like this,” says NOJA Power Group Managing Director Neil O’Sullivan. “I congratulate Hydro Tasmania, TasNetworks and their project teams on their fast action to guarantee the continuity of supply in Tasmania.”

Substation level installation and remote generation sites are not new applications for NOJA Power OSM Reclosers. These devices are well established in multiple mining and remote generation applications around the world. With the recent achievements of 16kA Fault rating with 1000A one-hour overload rating for the OSM38 38kV Recloser, NOJA Power are likely to see an even greater increase of substation level installations across the globe.