The Southwestern Power Administration’s (SWPA) Poplar Bluff Substation included several pieces of equipment in need of upgrading, so they turned to Barr. We designed a relay panel to replace outdated protection and controls (P&C) and upgrade the remote terminal units (RTUs) and metering equipment.
The substation has two 161kV transmission lines, three 161kV/69kV transformers, and two 69kV feeder lines, using a main-and-transfer configuration on both the 161kV and 69kV buses. The substation configuration also included six 161kV breakers, six 69kV breakers, and one 69kV capacitor bank.
To avoid any outages, SWPA also requested that we create a temporary design and mobile relay panels to maintain service during the panel replacement process for about five weeks. Barr created 6 new drawings and modified 68 existing drawings for the temporary relay design set. A specialized coloring scheme was used to differentiate temporary drawings from final drawings. Our final design modified and created a total of 134 drawings, including one-line and three-line drawings; AC, DC, and RTU schematics; panel layouts (with detailed material lists for panel build), and wiring diagrams. Additionally, a 35-page installation procedure document was prepared providing step-by-step instructions for temporary setup, removals, and final installations and checkouts.
Barr provided relay settings and onsite commissioning support in 2021 during the construction, and construction was completed summer of 2021.