Deployment and Performance of a Large Scale Fault Monitoring System During Storm Conditions

Fault recording in a UK utility. This utility in the north of the UK is a vertically integrated company owning and operating transmission and distribution from 400KV to 400/240V and serving 3.5 million consumers. The infrastructure consists of 92,100 substations, 42,550Km of overhead line and 68,670Km of underground cable. The cost to replace these assets would be in excess of £10 billion.

The winter of 2009/10 produced some of the worst weather conditions in UK for 30 years. Severe ice and snow storms wreaked havoc across the country causing major disruption to infrastructure. There were many incidents on the power system from December 2009 to March 2010. This paper will look at a specific storm that occurred between the 24th and 26th of February. In this particular storm up to 61cm of snowfall was recorded and temperatures as low as -19.2°C. Strong winds also contributed to the problems with gale force gusts recorded on the western coast. Across all of Scotland 45,000 homes were without power for several hours and drivers on the main A9 road were stranded for up to 17 hours due to the extreme snow and fallen power lines.

For more information, you can check out the full case study.