Wednesday 11 Sep 2013
New contract sparks revolution in electrical control.
- Region & Route:
- National
Network Rail’s electrical control systems are to be overhauled and brought together under a new contract, changing the way the railway manages its power.
As the largest single consumer of electricity in the UK, Network Rail is responsible for a large power network, not just for powering trains, but also controlling other aspects of the railway including signalling and telecoms.
The new electrical control contract, awarded to telent (lower-case 't', subs) will see 16 separate electrical control systems, some of which date from the 1950s, replaced by a new national SCADA system - Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition.
This will also allow Network Rail to move staff from the current 13 electrical control rooms into eight of the proposed 12 new rail operating centres, where they will work alongside signallers and train controllers.
Chris Rowley, head of operations development at Network Rail, said: “The move to one national system for electrical control represents one of the biggest changes to the way we operate the electrified network.
“It will provide a firm foundation on which to expand our electrified network, increasing reliability and improving the efficiency of how we use our power.”
The oldest control rooms still in use utilise electro-mechanical control panels which are increasingly difficult to maintain. The new control system will be VDU-based and will allow for enhanced monitoring of electricity usage and automatic responses to circuit-breaker trippings.
This will increase the efficiency with which Network Rail uses its power and improve the response to operating incidents.
Notes to editors
The contract, which is worth £27m, is forecast to last until 2017.
It will involve:
Migrating control from Electricity Control Rooms to Rail Operating Centres.
Installing 20 SCADA server racks at Three Bridges and Manchester ROCs
Installing workstations in 8 ROCs
Training approximately 310 staff
Migrating 750 remote terminal units (RTUs) across existing electronic areas
Installing 250 new RTUs in the south east.
Installing 500 substation communication devices
Installing 700km of fibre optic distribution frames
Two further contracts have been let for the conversion of the Raynes Park, Selhurst, Eastleigh and Canterbury electromechanical control areas to fibre optic control.
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