Power System Study Scope

Understanding what you will be primarily using the model for is critical.
In some cases the thought is to develop the model as part of the arc flash study and comply with NFPA70E or CSAZ462. This is not a bad idea, even though you are not in compliance – they are standards not codes. When you are completing a study for incident energy purposes, the model will be set up to ensure that you are getting worse case scenario energies. The scope will be different if you are sizing equipment for a addition to your facility.
Flickr - No matter if your project is big or small, understanding the scope will make the process smoother.
In Power System Studies – The Why and How, I discussed all the reasons why you may need a new or updated power system study at your facility and in Power System Studies – The Critical Four we talked about the four studies I want to see every facilty address. However, you may have constraints either time or money that don't all you to have all for completed at the same time, or you may have parts of you plant completed and others that need to be updated. The first step before starting any data gathering is to determine what you need completed.
For example, if you decide that you want to have an incident energy study completed for your facility, but don't have any power quality concerns, you will only need to gather data for the short circuit, protection coordination and operating scenarios for the incident energy study. This has been detailed here.

Power System Study Scope Development

For any power system study project there are five areas that need to be addressed during the planning stage, they will determine how the project will be executed they are:

• Project Scheduling
• Data Gathering and verification
• Model Generation
• Report including the following sections:
  • Short Circuit Study Results
  • Protection Coordination Study Results
  • Incident Energy Study Results
  • Load Flow Study Results
  • Recommendations to mitigate problems found in the results
• Presentation of results

Project Scheduling

Determining the required project schedule and deadline will detemrine the resources required to execute the project. Depending on the budget available, this timeline can be moved by adding or removing resources. This is also the time to corrdinate facility outages with other planning groups. It is always better to know when an outage is planned and use the same time than adding another outage to the system.

Data Gathering and Verification

This is where you plant your data collection effort. Check out the link to learn more about this.

Model Generation

Does your existing drawings have a naming system that can be used by the model, does your company have a standard? Is the standard documented? Knowing this remove confusion when discussing system components for the different system configurations, etc.

The Power System Study Report

The report should include sections for all the studies that you are completing and recommendations for any areas of concern:

• Short Circuit Study Results
• Protection Coordination Study Results
• Incident Energy Study Results (This is not an arc flash study – will be explained in a future post)
• Load Flow Study Results
• Recommendations to mitigate problems found in the results

Presentation of Results

Who will be interested in the results of the study? Can you get them all in the same room? How is the best way to present the report. What you will be trying to avoid is a binder getting dusty on a shelf in an engineers office. I talked briefly why most of the groups in your facility should be interested, and how they can leverage a good study and make their business area more reliable.

Conclusion

When the sower system study scope is complete it is time to get started deciding how to execute the project. There are three different ways that this can be done, and next week we discuss the pros/cons of each, and some tips on how to use them successfully. They are:

• Complete the project internally
• Outsource all the work
• A bit of both.

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