Designing and implimentation of an improved remote supervisory control and voltage regulation system at Wimalasurendra power station

Abstract

The Wimalasurendra Power Station (WPS) is one of the five power stations in Laxapana Hydro Power complex, situated on the right bank of the Norton reservoir near Norton Bridge, in the island of Sri Lanka and was commissioned in 1965.Theexisting control system of WPS has been designed with the conventional magnetic relays and panel type Man Machine Interfaces (MMIs) at the control room and generator floor.// Unavailability of a remote monitoring and controlling facility for generators and other equipments, from the engineer's office, has been experienced as a major limitation by the engineers who have been in charge of WPS over the years. This inspired me to solve this problem during my tenure as the Engineer In-Charge of WPS. Further, theAutomatic Voltage Regulators (AVR) are not in order and therefore the voltage had to be manually controlled by the switchboard operators since 1990. It is also reported that several attempts to restore the AVRs had failed mainly due to the unavailability of spares.// Though it was planned to rehabilitate and automate the WPS under the Laxapana Rehabilitation Project III (LRP III), it is still remaining as a pending project due to the present financial crisis of the CEB.// This report presents, the project of designing and implementation of a remote supervisory control system and a supporting system to improve the out put voltage of WPS by a modification of conventional Automatic Voltage Regulators of generating units.