GE Vernova Relies on the iba System in Sofia Project

The total amount of electricity produced by Sofia will be sufficient to power nearly 1.2 million British households. However, delivering this electricity from the 593-square-kilometer offshore wind farm to consumers requires a sophisticated transmission infrastructure.

First, high-capacity export cables transmit the power to an offshore converter platform, where it is converted from 66 kV AC to 320 kV DC for efficient long-distance transmission. At the onshore converter station, located approximately 220 kilometers away, the electricity is converted back to 400 kV AC, making it suitable for integration into the national grid.

Flexible Sampling Rates: Fault Analysis with the iba System

To ensure maximum fault tolerance in these two key components, GE Vernova, the company responsible for designing and constructing the converter stations, chose the Transient Fault Recorder (TFR) from German company iba AG. 

"We have worked with the iba system on previous projects and found their products to be highly effective. One particularly valuable feature for us is that, compared to other TFR systems, the iba solution is module-based. This means we can use different sampling rates for different signal groups, offering maximum flexibility," says Li Ding, Principal Engineer for Control and Protection Systems at GE Vernova.

This flexibility helps optimize resources and reduce costs. "In the iba system, we record data at up to 40 kHz, but of course, we don't need such high sampling rates for all signals," Ding explains.

These extremely high sampling rates are necessary because electrical systems respond to faults at incredible speed, and compensatory processes can cause significant damage if not properly managed. In the future, sampling rates of up to 500 kHz would even be possible with iba’s new modular measurement system ibaMAQS.

Analyzing Data from Control Systems and Switchgear Together

GE Vernova is using two iba TFR systems in the Sofia project, one at each substation. These systems record both analog and digital signals with high resolution before and after any fault or disturbance occurs.

Thanks to the iba system’s extensive process connectivity, measurement and control data, as well as events and calculated real-time signals, are available simultaneously. Additionally, data from switchgear systems using the IEC 61850 communication protocol can also be captured via the corresponding interface in the ibaPDA data acquisition software. This allows all process data to be analyzed in one unified system.

To capture signals, GE Vernova relies on the iba hardware component ibaPADU-S in combination with the ibaMS-AI and ibaMS-DI modules. "In the Sofia project, all signals from the measurement transducers are converted into the IEC 61850 protocol, so we use IEC 61850 communication instead of hardware signals in our system. The iba solution gives us a great deal of flexibility in this regard," Ding notes.

All of this enables a comprehensive analysis of grid disturbances and other events, as well as the precise identification of their root causes. The processed data sets are automatically exported in COMTRADE format using the ibaDatCoordinator data management software. 

"We were not only impressed by the products but also by the professional collaboration. Whenever we had any requests, we received immediate assistance," Ding says. Looking ahead, she adds, "This is the main reason we chose the iba system – and why we will continue to use it in future projects."