Our Disciplines

Secondary Systems, Protection and Control

Noble Power Solutions has extensive experience in the installation, configuration, functional testing, operating characteristics verification and routine maintenance of a wide range of Protection and Control Schemes.

Our experience is almost as vast as the industries in which we operate, and while the details below are not exhaustive, but offers some indication of our experience and capabilities.

  • Generator Protection including overcurrent, earth fault, rotor earth fault, current differential, low forward power, reverse power, pole slip, loss of excitation, thermal protection, current unbalance, over speed, under frequency, over frequency, under voltage, over voltage and over fluxing. This is applicable to both high-speed turbines (gas or steam), low-speed turbines (hydro) and non-synchronous generation such as wind and solar.
  • Transformer Protection including overcurrent, earth fault, high and low impedance current differential, impedance protection, over fluxing, thermal protection, gas protection, oil surge protection, current unbalance, under voltage, over voltage and voltage regulation schemes. This is applicable to power transformers, generator step up transformers, unit transformers, distribution transformers and special application transformers.
  • Transmission Lines and Feeder Protection including overcurrent, earth fault, current differential, impedance protection, inter tripping schemes (permissive inter trip, direct inter trip) and auto reclose schemes. Experience in transmission line and feeder protection covers the range from LV feeders to 3.3kV feeders up to 500kV transmission lines.
  • Bay Controller Schemes including metering, alarms, inter-tripping, interlocking and primary plant indication and control.
  • Bus Bar protection Schemes including overcurrent, earth fault, current differential, impedance protection, circuit breaker fail and inter tripping schemes, blocking schemes and auto close schemes. In addition to testing of the protection relays, our technicians are also experienced in performing balance and functional testing through primary injection, a vital step in the commissioning process.
  • Reactive Compensation including overcurrent, earth fault, impedance protection, thermal protection, gas protection, oil surge protection, current unbalance, under voltage, over voltage and voltage regulation schemes. This includes oil filled reactors, STATCOMS, capacitor banks and harmonic filters.
  • DC, UPS and Battery Systems including change over systems, automatic transfer systems, battery charger configuration and testing, battery capacity tests, battery discharge test and battery impedance tests.
  • IEC61850 and SCADA Systems including development of RTU and IED configurations, communication device configuration and connections, developing and deploying HMI systems, communications based protection and control schemes, and coordinating and conducting end to end testing with the Master Station.

Primary Plant

Noble Power Solutions technicians have many years of testing all types of primary high voltage electrical plant, including both new and aged equipment.

From acceptance testing, pre-commissioning and commissioning through to annual maintenance, routine testing and condition assessments, Noble Power Solutions has the right skills, experience and expertise to meet all our client requirements.

  • Generators and motors including insulation resistance and polarisation index, stator winding resistance, dielectric loss angle (power factor), capacitance, high voltage withstand, on-line and off-line partial discharge testing, rotor insulation resistance, rotor winding resistance, rotor pole drop tests, recurrent surge oscillography and rotor impedance. We have experience in testing all types of generator – both high and low speed – from just a few kilowatts in size right through to 250MW or more.
  • Power, Distribution and Generator Step Up Transformers including insulation resistance and polarisation index, winding resistance, voltage ratio, excitation current, winding and bushing dielectric loss angle (power factor), capacitance, leakage reactance (short circuit impedance), magnetic balance, Sweep Frequency Analysis (SFRA), Dielectric Response Analysis (DIRANA). Our experience and expertise cover everything from small distribution transformers through to 540MVA generator step up transformers and even up to 1000MVA network power transformers.
  • Earthing System Testing in accordance with Australian and International Standards for Step, Touch and Transfer Voltage measurements, fall of potential, voltage contours, fault current distributions earthing system continuity, soil resistivity. From the results of testing we are able to calculate the earthing system impedance and the impedance of the earth grid, as well as assess compliance with required standards.
  • Instrument Transformers including current transformer testing for insulation resistance, winding resistance, excitation current (knee point voltage) and ratio and polarity. Voltage transformer testing capabilities cover insulation resistance, winding resistance, ratio and polarity. Noble Power Solutions technicians are experienced in performing dielectric loss angle testing of instrument transformers. We have tested all types of instrument transformers with voltage ranges from low voltage through to 330kV.
  • High Voltage Switchgear from outdoor, air-insulated equipment through to indoor equipment and gas insulated switchboards our technicians have seen, tested and commissioned it all. While we could include an expansive list in this section, we will summarise it to say mechanic interlocking checks through to circuit breaker timing tests we can do the lot! Noble Power Solutions can also perform condition monitoring tests such as partial discharge, dielectric loss angle and thermographic surveys of all HV apparatus.
  • Capacitor Banks, Reactors and Harmonic Filter testing and tuning requirements basic tests such as insulation resistance, capacitance and reactance measurements through to overall bank measurements and frequency response measurements.
  • High Voltage Cable testing including insulation resistance measurements of the screens and cable conductors, polarisation index, positive and zero sequence impedance measurements, Very Low Frequency High Voltage Withstand, Dielectric Loss Angle and Capacitance, and on-line and off-line partial discharge measurements. We have performed this testing on both new and aged assets from 3.3kV up to 132kV.
  • Transmission Line Circuit measurements for positive and zero sequence impedance and phase identification.

High Voltage System Engineering and Auditing

  • AS2067 compliance audits. Our technicians can perform an audit for a singular HV installation through to an entire site wide HV reticulation system determining areas where compliance to the latest requirements under Australian High Voltage Installation Standard AS2067:2016 and Australian Wiring Rules AS3000:2018.
  • Noble Power Solutions utilises the latest software packages to undertake many aspects of Power System design and modelling.

Software packages used by Noble Power Solutions include:

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And other software packages for studies in:

  • A wide range of HV cable rating calculations in conditions such as grouped, in air, direct buried, and in cable ducts
  • Calculations of steady-state and transient line ratings for overhead conductors
  • Cable pulling tensions and sidewall pressure calculations to ensure safety while avoiding damage during installation