The International Conference on Electrical Engineering 2009

Total Solution Approach for Managing the High Voltage Gas Insulated Switchgear in Hongkong Electric
Ir. K.W. Yan, RPE, MHKIE, C. Eng, MIET Construction & Maintenance Department, Transmission & Distribution Division, The Hongkong Electric Co., Limited
Abstract--Hongkong Electric is responsible for providing efficient and reliable electricity supply to Hong Kong Island where the load density for electricity is among the highest in the world. In view of the limited space on the Island and the many advantages of Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS), Hongkong Electric started to introduce this type of switchgear into the 132kV system in mid 70s. They are now the standard design for all transmission installations up to the highest system voltage of 275kV. Despite the satisfactory performance of GIS in the past decades, there could still be potential risks in the operation and maintenance of the GIS that requires a Total Solution approach to ensure highest equipment reliability as well as operational health and safety. The Total Solution approach takes a life cycle view that incorporates risk and hazard identification and mitigation measures right from the design stage of the GIS, followed by constant operational review, introduction of latest technology and management skills, asset upgrading, condition monitoring and refurbishment throughout the useful service life of GIS. This paper presents the Total Solution approach adopted by Hongkong Electric for GIS asset management and the enhancements reached. KeywordsAsset Management, Condition Monitoring, Gas Insulated Switchgear, Life Cycle, Maintenance, Refurbishment.

Fig. 1. Block diagram of the Total Solution Approach for managing GIS

II. DESIGN REVIEW AND REQUIREMENT FOR NEW GIS The first GIS was introduced in HEC network in 70s. With more than 30 years of experience in operation of GIS, HEC had carried out a number of reviews on GIS design, incorporated these requirements in GIS specifications and adopted an active approach in selecting reliable GIS for application in the network. A. Selection of suitable GIS driving mechanism HEC will prepare technical specifications and requirements according to the latest international standards, market available techniques, feedbacks from the various reliability reviews and operational staff as well as HEC system requirements and characteristics in order to achieve reliable GIS operation with an aim to design out potential risks, hazards and operational limitation as far as possible. One of the most common problems associated with operation of GIS is its driving mechanism. The first generation GIS of HEC in early 70s used high pressure hydraulic system (over 300 bar) for the Gas Circuit Breaker (GCB) operation and the problem associated with this high pressure operating mechanism is frequent leakage of oil or nitrogen which introduced not only burden to the System due to outage of GCB for work but also risks to the maintenance staff since the stringent depressurizing procedures had to be

K Electric (HEC) is one of the two power companies in Hong Kong supplying electricity to Hong Kong Island, Lamma Island and Apleichau. The maximum demand is around 2600MW with load density as high as 250MVA/km2 at the northern belt of Hong Kong Island where most of the important commercial, financial and government institutions are located. High reliability of electricity supply is therefore of utmost importance. To improve the supply reliability as well as operational safety, HEC adopted the Total Solution Approach in managing the High Voltage Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) as shown in figure 1. By considering the whole life cycle of asset, starting from GISs initial design stage till its retirement, the cause of failure, potential risks and hazards associated with the asset are positively addressed, eliminated or reduced to a minimum. With this well organized asset management system and the help of the state-of-art technology, the reliability and availability of GIS as well as the health and safety of operational staff working on GIS are greatly improved.

I. INTRODUCTION

completed before the mechanism can be worked on by experienced staff. Based on this bitter experience and operational constraint, GIS with pneumatic operating system operating at a much lower pressure of 15 / 30 bars was introduced in late 70s. By employing such operating mechanism, the availability of GIS was improved and the hazards associated with working at the driving mechanism are much reduced. Although the risk and problems associated with the hydraulic system had been reduced with the pneumatic system and the mechanism reliability is quite high, the risk of driving mechanism fluid leakage still existed and additional maintenance effort had to be paid to take care of the compressed air system. To completely eliminate this potential risk and extra maintenance effort in taking care of the compressed air system, motor-charged spring operating mechanism was considered and was first tried out in late 80s at 132kV load breaking switches which operated at a much lower speed than GCB. After gaining sufficient operational experience in the spring operating mechanism and confirming their reliability, HEC decided to move to spring operating mechanism for all new 275kV and 132kV GIS (Fig. 2). With this, the potential hazard and work load associated with pressurized operating mechanism can completely be eliminated. B. Design of GIS Configuration and Layout Besides selecting suitable driving mechanism, GIS configuration and layout have also been taken into careful consideration in the design stage. The design of conventional GIS usually requires two-level work because the layout is basically governed by the use of common modules produced by the manufacturer. Such layout require high head-room GIS hall, longer busbar and large size operating platform for operational staff to access the operating mechanisms at high level for routine operation, inspection as well as maintenance. To improve the GIS reliability by reducing the busbar length and to tackle manual handling of bulky equipment at awkward position and high level, HEC started to review the GIS layouts with the manufacturer from operators perspective and come up with a design of low profile type compact GIS (Fig. 3) which is more user friendly without sacrificing switchgear functionality and reliability such that the access of all control, monitoring and operating mechanism cubicles were at ground level.

C. Quality Control and Reliable GIS Manufacturing HEC strongly believes that good quality and reliable switchgear operation must come from high quality manufacturing process and continuous quality review. With this belief in mind, HEC started to organize Quality Assurance/Quality Control meetings with the GIS manufacturer since mid 80s as a scheduled communication channel between the user and manufacturer to feedback the operation performance of the GIS supplied. Such meetings involving the manufacturers engineering staff from various disciplines including design, quality control and manufacturing as well as on site construction and maintenance crew to address design requirements and issues related to manufacturing defects and performance of in-service GIS as well as safe operation of the switchgear. Examples of improvement identified are double checking the tightness of every single bolt and nut inside the GIS chamber during the manufacturing stage and positive identification of different types of insulation spacer (Fig. 4 & 5) on external portion of the GIS to prevent switchgear failure due to loose contact or bolt and nut and incorrect handling of SF6 gas for different gas zones of the GIS. All these reviews and subsequent implementation by the switchgear manufacturer would be regularly audited and HEC would also dispatch engineer to witness major type or routine tests during GIS production to ascertain the quality of product. All these steps help to reinforce the quality of the switchgear in the manufacturing stage.

Fig. 4. Double check mark for confirming the tightness for bolt and nut inside GIS

Fig. 5. Identification mark to indicate the type of gas barrier used

Although HEC is only a user of switchgear, the effects of active participation in the early design stage of GIS as well as the clear stand on the choice of a hazard free operating mechanism and the high quality GIS over the years were borne out in the highly reliable operation record of GIS and this is in-line with the global trend towards safer equipment for the benefit of the maintenance crew. III. MAINTENANCE, REFURBISHMENT AND CONDITION MONITORING OF GIS A. Maintenance Strategy and Technique Time base maintenance approach according to the manufacturers recommendation was initially adopted for carrying out maintenance of GIS. With the increase in

Fig. 2. Torsion Spring Motor Charging Type Operating Mechanism

Fig. 3. Low profile type 275kV compact GIS with operating mechanism cubicles at ground level

experience of GIS operation and the aim for high reliability and cost effectiveness, the GIS maintenance strategy of HEC has changed from traditional time base maintenance to reliability centered maintenance (RCM). The change in strategy is also reinforced by the introduction of state-of-art techniques and tools which help to improve and reinforce the maintenance efficiency as well as the health and safety of the maintenance crew. For example, one of the major advantages of GIS is its compactness. But this introduces difficulty for the maintenance staff to carry out GIS internal inspection due to highly congested environment inside the GIS tank. In the past, conventional inspection mirror is used for viewing components located deep inside the GIS chamber where normal human access is impossible. However, there is a lot of limitation in manipulating the inspection mirror and the risk of leaving tools and tiny metal parts inside the switchgear is relatively high. To overcome such limitation, Videoscope (Fig. 6), which uses the same principle as endoscope for inspection of interior of an organ, with long insertion probe and video camera head was adopted for accessing and inspecting the inaccessible portion, and displaying the component images as the camera is threaded through the chamber. A number of defects were discovered with the use of videosope and one example is the formation of zinc whisker on zinc plated component inside the GIS as shown in Figure 7. With the assistance of this special tool, defects inside the GIS can be discovered promptly during maintenance / refurbishment and the chance of GIS internal fault is much reduced.

before release for re-use or disposal. This handling unit is equipped with particle filter for filtering solid particles, such as metal oxide (WOx) in the decomposed SF6 gas as well as dry filter for absorbing the moisture and gaseous decomposed products such as Sulfur oxide (SOx). By using this sophisticated filtering system, most of the contaminated SF6 gas can be reconditioned to operational level for re-use and wastage of gas is much reduced.

Fig. 8. 3-in-1 (dew point/ purity/ decomposed products) SF6 analyzer for verifying GIS SF6 gas condition

Fig. 9. Decomposed SF6 gas handling unit for reconditioning contaminated SF6 gas

Fig. 6. Portable videoscope for inspecting those inaccessible portions of GIS

Fig. 7. Whisker formation on spacer adaptor inside GIS

Measuring the dew point and purity of SF6 gas are another important maintenance activities to be carried out during GIS maintenance. To streamline the process, a 3-in-1 SF6 gas analyzer (dew point / purity / decomposed products measurement) (Fig. 8) is introduced so that maintenance staff can obtain all the required gas analyzing results by single connection to the GIS. Moreover, by measuring the trend of decomposed products inside SF6 gas, which is generated due to arcing of switching devices or resulted from partial discharge (PD) inside the GIS tanks for non-switching device portion, the condition of SF6 gas and hence GIS can be verified without opening the GIS tank for inspection. To handle the decomposed products of SF6 gas during routine maintenance or after switchgear fault, an advanced decomposed SF6 gas handling unit (Fig. 9) was introduced to purify any possibly contaminated SF6 gas inside GIS chamber

B. Refurbishment Strategy By the early 90s, many of the GIS have reached the age of the first internal inspection / refurbishment normally recommended by the GIS manufacturers. Due to the predominately underground transmission circuits in the HEC network, GCB tripping due to overhead line transient faults is infrequent and the expected contact wear should be minimal. Although the GIS are expected to be in healthy condition, HEC adopted a more prudent approach in formulating the refurbishment strategy in order to strike for the proper balance among reliability, resources and risks associated with internal inspections. After sample checking some of the GCBs operated for 12 years or more, and in view of the literature reports of risks associated with internal inspections, it was decided in the early 90s to establish the internal inspection / refurbishment criteria systematically through a series of pilot assessment schemes carried out on different types of GIS of different ages. These pilot schemes did reveal some unexpected failure modes as well as identify items other than the current carrying part of GCB that would have a significant impact on the refurbishment strategy. Based on the results of these pilot assessment schemes on different types and ages of GIS and the review of operational history of GIS, the internal inspection / refurbishment criteria and strategy as well as which components to be replaced were worked out with close co-operation of GIS manufacturers [1] to ensure the establishment of an effective and efficient as well as long term GIS refurbishment plan to support the overall supply reliability and power quality of HEC. C. Condition Monitoring of GIS Measuring PD signal is a commonly acceptable method to predict the condition of in-service GIS. In HEC, PD inside GIS is prevented through design such as particle trap, proper material selection, quality assurance systems, and simplified site installation using modular design. To further reduce the possible adverse impact caused by switchgear failure, HEC introduced portable partial discharge equipment using Ultra

High Frequency (UHF) coupler in the mid 1990s (Fig. 10) to proactively detect possible discharge inside GIS on routine basis. In year 2009, HEC introduced the second generation of UHF type portable partial discharge detection system with built-in expert system for PD pattern recognition to further enhance the technique in determining the type and location of PD detected (Fig. 11).

gas section could be located visually by site personnel and the restoration process after tripping involving GIS fault could be speeded up. IV. CONTINUOUS REVIEW, IMPROVEMENT, UPGRADING AND REPLACEMENT A. Modification of GIS Busbar Configuration and Layout Different GIS busbar configurations, such as mesh corner, single busbar, double busbar and 1 1/2 CBs, were introduced to HECs system based on the strategic location / importance of the GIS. System reliability is also being comprehensively reviewed annually based on the latest system loading and load flow studies. The study takes the most severe fault condition, i.e., Bus Coupler fault, resulting in the loss of two busbars concurrently into consideration and past studies indicated that the loss of two busbars for some stations would lead to a mishap for the whole system and affect system stability. In view of this, HEC adopted a cost effective approach by modifying the existing double busbar configuration of GIS at strategic location to either 3-busbar configuration or double end box layout to relief the impact of such fault to the system instead of complete GIS replacement (Fig. 14 & 15). Up to 2009 seven GIS stations were modified to incorporate the above improvement(s) and simple double busbar layout will not be adopted for new GIS station.

Fig. 10. First generation of portable partial discharge detection equipment with AE and UHF sensors

Fig. 11 Second generation of portable partial discharge detection system with built-in expert system for PD pattern recognition

Since the PD activity may be intermittent in nature and be initiated by system disturbance such as switching voltage surge, thus the periodic PD detection system may not be completely effective. With the experience in the use of portable PD detection unit, various on-line PD Monitoring Systems were evaluated by HEC since late 90s. Detection system using internal sensor was not proposed due to the risk associated with the retrofitting of internal sensors and the necessity of shutting down the GIS modules for rectifying any sensor defects. Non-intelligent PD detection system were tried out but also excluded due to less distinct detection leading to unnecessary opening of GIS tank. Finally online PD monitoring system using non-intrusive external UHF couplers with built in fuzzy logic detection algorithm in each coupler is selected (Fig. 12). By using such system, electrical discharge activities can be monitored continuously with early warning signals for immediate attention, thus preventing switchgear failure affecting operator safety and network reliability.

Fig. 14. GIS configuration improvement by modifying the busbar configuration

Fig. 15 GIS configuration improvement by double cable end boxes approach

Fig. 12. On-line PD monitoring system using external UHF couplers

Fig. 13 Fault locating system by means of contact thermometry

Besides, a simple, but effective, fault locating system by means of contact thermometry is also adopted. The chromophoric substances, which change colour irreversibly with temperature variation, in the shape of sticker labels are stuck onto the busbar isolators to serve as the temperature change indicator (Fig. 13). This indicator at faulty portion will change in colour due to temperature rise of the GIS tank during flash-over. With the help of this indicator, any faulty

B. Improvement and Upgrading of in-service GIS Besides the annual review of system reliability by taking GIS configuration into consideration, the design of in-service GIS will also be reviewed periodically to meet the latest system requirement as well as operational health and safety requirements. Modification and upgrading work would be carried out when the need is identified and confirmed. Examples listed below are some improvement projects carried out by HEC for the in-service GIS. To prevent GIS tank rupture under internal arc fault condition, the pressure relief devices of graphite rupture disks (Fig. 16) were originally installed at different portions of GIS to release the gas due to rise in gas pressure under fault condition. However, the service life of such pressure relief device is limited and these graphite rupture disks have a risk of fracture under normal service condition causing injuries to people working in the vicinity and sudden GIS outage. Such deficiency was considered as a time bomb and affected not only the reliability of GIS, but also the safety of the operator.

HEC conducted a number of studies in conjunction with the switchgear manufacturer and confirmed that the design of existing GIS tanks can withstand the internal fault condition if the fault can be cleared in less than 300ms. After confirmation of the speed of fault clearance, the graphite rupture disks were replaced by the mild steel blanking plate of sufficient thickness during the circuit outage from year 2000 onwards to eliminate the potential disk rupture concern.

these GIS with acceptable condition from service and retaining it as strategic spare for other in-service GIS is adopted. This approach can ensure the in-service GIS have adequate spare as support for extending its service life. Also, by making use of this opportunity, HEC can train up new maintenance staff in handling old GIS and at the same time introduce new GIS with the latest proven technology into the system to further enhance the reliability of GIS and safety of the operational staff. V. SKILL MANAGEMENT AND ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM A. Skill Management for GIS maintenance and operation Another important factor affecting the reliability of GIS and the associated risk level to the operation and maintenance crew is human factor. In HEC, all GIS maintenance as well as the refurbishment works are carried out by her own engineering staff and tradesmen. A comprehensive skill profile was set up to record down the skill accredited by individual staff and tradesman to ensure adequate training and assessment was received by the tradesman in order to maintain the work quality. For those works involving dismantling of major internal parts of GIS or other high risk operation such as internal inspection of GCB, supervisors from the manufacturer will be employed to provide training and supervision to ensure the procedure and quality of work is same as the factory standard. B. Asset Management System for GIS Besides training of staff, a structural asset management system, which is certified in compliance of PAS-55 of British Standards Institution by Hong Kong Quality Assurance Authority, is adopted in HEC to manage all the maintenance activities including those for GIS such that all maintenance activities can be performed in a systematic and effective manner. Also, the past history of GIS, starting from its commissioning, periodic maintenance record, defects and operation data, can be traced from this asset management system. Moreover, a comprehensive operation and reliability review will be carried out every 3 years for all aspects related to the asset, such as reviewing the performance of the asset, evaluating the common failure modes from the past defect records and availability of spare parts, and studying the major incident related to GIS happened in other countries, to ensure the asset reliability is up to the highest standard. VI. CONCLUSION With the enforcement of this total solution approach in the complete life cycle management of GIS, the potential risks and hazards in GIS operation and maintenance are systematically and carefully addressed and reduced. All these steps and approaches have also helped to further enhance the reliability and availability of GIS and made it become the truly reliable and safe equipment in our power supply network.

Fig. 16. Graphite rupture disk and blanking plate

Fig. 17 Gas zone diagram of individual isolators before and after improvement work

For some old GIS, the gas zones are usually separated into 3 major gas zones only, i.e., GCB, isolators and cable endbox. Since the isolator gas section consists of cable and busbar isolators, there is a risk of tripping of busbar due to contamination of busbar side isolator gas compartments under internal fault condition at cable isolator or mistake in carrying out gas work of that particular gas zone. With the support of GIS manufacturer, HEC separated the common gas zone of the busbar and cable isolators into individual gas zone (Fig. 17) by retrofitting additional gas monitoring devices and filling ports to reduce the area contaminated in case of GIS internal fault and hence eliminating the risk of busbar tripping under cable isolator fault condition. In addition, to cater for the rapid load growth and increase in system generating capacity, the original design of 3-cycle fault clearance time for the existing 275kV GCB is considered inadequate and a faster fault clearance time of 2.5-cycle GCB was required to maintain the system stability. After a series of study, the switchgear manufacturer confirmed the design of existing GIS could fulfill the requirement of 2.5-cycle GCB. To ascertain the GIS can still meet the 2.5 cycle design criteria after a number of years in service, a comprehensive break time measurement for all in-service 275kV GCBs was conducted under various operating conditions by HEC engineers. After this positive verification of the measurement results, all tested GCBs were confirmed to meet the criteria and declared as 2.5cycle GCBs by the switchgear manufacturer and upgrading of GCB to meet the system requirement is not required. C. Replacement of GIS GIS is renowned for its high reliability and long service life. However, due to product standardization and upgrading by the switchgear manufacturers, some models of the in-service GIS in HEC system may be obsolete after a long period of time from production. To tackle the problem of lack of technical support or replacement parts, an approach of retiring some of

VII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author would like to express his sincere thanks to the Management of The Hongkong Electric Co. Ltd. for the permission to publish this paper. VIII. REFERENCE
[1] H.W. Leung "Aged GIS Condition Assessment and Refurbishment Hongkong Electrics Experience," in The 17th Conference of Electric Power Supply Industry.

IX. BIOGRAPHY
Yan Ka Wing was born in Hong Kong. He received his B. Eng. degree in electrical and electronic engineering from The University of Hong Kong and his M. Sc. degree in engineering management from City University Hong Kong. He joined The Hongkong Electric Co., Limited in 1993. Since then, he has been engaged in the operation and maintenance of the transmission and distribution system. Mr. Yan is a member of HKIE and IET.