Risk Management

Basing on our engineering experience in the area of power facility construction, and upon the electrical grid market review, there are the most common risks and consequences that any customer may face while establishing a new business or power facility to supply their business, such as:

• Lack of opportunities to implement business goal. For electric grid companies, this goal is to connect new consumers, for industrial enterprises – to launch manufacturing, for generators –to comply with contract provisions on power supply, for transport companies – to ensure transportation, and for civil construction – to meet commissioning dates.
• Budget variance (overspending) occurs when the project is assessed by incompetent persons, inexperienced, or poorly qualified organizations
• Frozen investment – most of the investment in the object is used, however power supply is unavailable due to various reasons.
• Profit loss growth occurs during business time-out due to failure of some power supply equipment caused by poor technical solutions.
• Operating costs increase results from insufficient depth of electrical equipment operating modes or conditions review within a particular area of customer's business
• Lack of opportunities to apply for guarantee service or consultancy to vendors or contractors. This risk is caused by unstable financial status of construction organizations and minor production companies in the RF
• Additional costs for re-installation or reconstruction may arise in case of inadequate quality of construction works, or failure to meet the required operating or environmental conditions
• Additional costs for correction of working or design documents occur upon approval of working documents, when orders are placed at different manufacturers.
• Inappropriate expenditures that lead to downtime of contractors due to poor funding of construction
• Inability to complete object in time, due to long manufacturing period of certain equipment

Funding Options

To ensure construction of power facilities, SVEL Group offers various funding options, and the most common are the following:

• Leasing, i.e. lending money from a third party, a leasing company, i.e., a long term lease-to-own option by residual value of the contract object upon completion of the contract.
• Project Funding, raising funds to support a long-term investment project. In this case, typically money is provided up to the cash flow to be generated by the project after its completion and not under any corporate guarantee or security.
• Factoring, an unsecured loan for organizations that provide their customers with goods or services under deferred payment conditions.
• Bank Guarantee
• Energy Service Contract, payment for productive supply of electricity at a pre-agreed tariff).

Technical Options, Authorizations and Permits

Construction of any power facility implies issuing, registration and development of huge amount of licensing documents. SVEL Group is ready to represent customer’s interests at each stage of document preparation, submission and approval.

• Prepare request for technical specification on connection to power grid and telecom providers
• Represent applicant's interests in negotiations with the grid organizations to optimize connection requirements
• Register land use documents (lease, easements, purchase agreements, and land use order)
• Obtain permission to vegetation clearance
• Ensure demining of the construction area
• Register construction permit
• Open orders on excavation works, and
• Others.

Design and Survey

Design and survey works are the most essential stage of power facility construction that determined the general concept. Consistent design and survey process impacts both timely and efficient construction of the facility, and their further reliable operation. Basing on the vast experience, SVEL Group defines the following milestones of design and survey:

• Prepare and approve the work order on development of design and working documents
• Conduct design and survey activity
• Develop design documents
• Approve design documents by the grid operator
• Approve design documents by the system transmission operator
• Obtain specification on using communication channels
• Obtain permission on parallel routing and HVTL crossing
• Obtain permission on construction at the water conservation areas, nature reserves, urbans, special purpose lands, border areas and in the proximity to military facilities.
• Submit for Expert Reviews, including the RF State Expertise
• Develop working documents with due regard to SVEL’s design solutions to eliminate any corrections upon placing the manufacturing orders
• Participate in development of technical solutions for each product by SVEL Design Teams (i.e. contribute into each integrate part of design process)
• Design supervision – full scale support of construction to ensure identity of the constructed facility with the design and working documents
• BIM (Building Information Modeling)
• Clash analysis prior to physical implementation of the facility (abutting elements, electrical compatibility, compliance with environment conditions, etc.)

Design Department’s headcount at SVEL is 80 Specialists.

SVEL Group is a member of Energoproject, SRO (self-regulating organization) and entitled to design facilities with the total cost up to RUB25mln.

Products

SVEL Group is proud of their vast experience in manufacturing Substations, 6kv (10kv) to 220kv. 70% of electrical equipment required for substations is made in-house. Please find more about SVEL Group product lines here.

Catalogue

Acting as an independent expert of power facility construction, SVEL always draw the customer's attention to the following:

• when equipment is ordered at different manufacturers, it is essential to ensure the equipment compatibility; and
• make sure that the technical parameters of Substation properly match the parameters of the separate components.

Project Management

Construction of a power facility, as a rule, involves a huge amount of participants and stakeholders of different levels of influence on the end result, amount of work which is spaced over time. To manage a large number of financial, human resources and time, some special skills and a professional team are required. SVEL Group provides the following tools and functions:

• Over 40 highly qualified Engineers and Specialists in many involved disciplines. Each expert is engaged due to the specific requirements to the quality of the facility and practically justified upon the experience of many completed projects
• Multilevel monitoring of by SVEL staff (Technical Support – Design Organization – Design Department – Production Site – QC – Incoming Check on-site – Construction Supervision)
• Maintain archive of all documents within the project including operating and as-built documents, retain time – 10 years min, the archive is kept both in hard and soft versions
• Maintain the General Construction Schedule using a special software with all necessary customized analytics
• Automated reporting on deviations, human recourses and machinery availability, and working plan compliance
• Unified information platform
• E-workflow with EDS (to approve certain sections of design and working documents, as-built documents, acceptance reports, etc.)

Construction&Installation

SVEL Group is a member of Builders of the Urals, SRO (self-regulating organization) and entitled to design facilities with the total cost up to RUB3bln.

Our company is focused on construction of power facilities, and we ensure the whole construction cycle, including:

• Construction management (temporary structures, driveways, fences, autonomous power supply, amenities for construction personnel)
• General construction activity (earthworks, foundation, landscaping, roadbeds, buildings, engineering communications, protection fencing)
• Metal installation (support elements, lighting posts, power transmission poles)
• Equipment rigging and installation
• Electrical installation (laying power and control cables)
• Commissioning (including HV testing and, setting relay protection and automation, communication and remote control)
• Construction and repair

Additionally, SVEL Group has many advantages in comparison with their competitors, such as:

1. During construction, SVEL Group is ready to represent Customer’s interests at any scheduled or unscheduled inspection by State Construction Supervising Authorities
2. To ensure quality, we engage Construction Laboratory and NDA Laboratory
3. Continuous video surveillance and access control system at the construction site
4. Onsite warehouse to ensure temporary storage of all material and equipment
5. Prepare as-built documents online at the cloud storage with shared access function
6. Ready to implement BIM 6D method (as-build information model of the facility with reference to telemetry and remote control systems)

Facility Acceptance by Supervision Authorities and Commissioning

Customer’s main goal is to energize the power facility, which is normally achieved upon acceptance of the constructed object, and obtaining all necessary permits, including:

• Compliance Certificate on meeting all applicable specifications
• Commissioning Permit from the Federal Service on Environment, Technical and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor)
• Clearance for Operation at Rostekhnadzor
• Compliance Certificate to confirm that the constructed, re-constructed facility meets all requirements of the design documents

Service Support

In order to reduce Customer’s expenses, SVEL Group implements the set of mandatory activities in terms of equipment maintenance such as:

Power Transformer

• Dielectric resistance
• DC resistance
• No Load Loss
• Transformation ratio
• Dielectric loss tg
• Tap Changer status
• Transformer oil analysis, refill or replace
• Oil leak check at gaskets (between cover and tank, under insulators’ flanges, taps, etc.)
• Bushings and insulators inspection (porcelain chips, cracks, contamination degree)
• Tap Changer functioning
• General transformer operability (humming, cracking, clicking sounds or increased vibration)
• Check self-indicating silica gel
• Visual inspection for dirt and dust on the transformer
• Visual inspection for oil release from the conservator or rupture of the exhaust diaphragm
• Check earthing status and temperature rise of contacts
• Prepare report upon results of measurements and checks
• Heat monitoring
• Check vents and protection systems

Buchholz Relay

• Check settings and contacts
• Resistance and circuit test, between circuits (with open contact relays) and to earth. Check open contacts insulation by 500V Megaohmmeter
• Check relay actuation by pressing the control button

Current Transformer (CT)

• Dielectric resistance of secondary circuits
• Check contacts
• Check magnetizing working point
• Visual inspection of external characteristics of damage (contact burning, porcelain cracks)
• Clean dirt from insulator’s surface
• Check ratio at working taping
• Secondary load at the most loaded CT bank

Voltage Transformer (VT)

• Dielectric resistance of secondary circuits
• DC resistance of secondary winding
• Check contacts
• No Load Current
• Determine load at each VT windings
• Determine voltage loss at VT cables prior to load

SF6 Circuit Breaker

• Check SF6 pressure
• Check interlocks
• Dielectric resistance of secondary circuits and magnet windings
• Circuit breaker insulation test
• DC resistance
• Check min voltage of circuit breaker’s actuation
• Check parameters
• Multiple run test
• Leak test
• Check moisture in SF6

Vacuum Circuit Breaker

• Check interlocks
• Visual inspection of external characteristics of damage
• Clean dirt from insulator’s surface
• Dielectric resistance of secondary circuits and magnet windings
• Multiple run test

Switchgear

• Check insulators
• Visual inspection of components and insulation (contamination, defects, partial discharge, etc.)
• Check control and alarm buttons
• Check contact and bolt joints
• Trial of a larm, switchgear lighting, heating automated devices, switching devices
• Check vents and heating
• Complex check of fire alarm
• Check mechanical and electromechanical locks
• Dielectric resistance
• DC resistance
• Mechanical test

Current Limiting Reactors

• Dielectric resistance of windings towards fixing bolts

Surge Protector, Nonlinear

• Check bolt tightening
• Visual inspection of external characteristics of damage
• Conduction current

Auxiliary Service Panel

• Visual inspection of main earth bus
• Dielectric resistance between live elements and body, resistance between earth terminal and metal elements
• Check lockup of packet switch at various positions
• Check fuse disconnectors
• Check protective earthing
• Heat monitoring of bolt contacts
• Tighten and lubricate contacts and bolts
• Check automatic switch over and system restoration
• Check actuation of circuit breaker
• Heat monitoring

Operating Currrent Cabinet

• Dielectric resistance between live elements and body
• Functional check of magnet elements and electronic modules (contactors, controllers, relay, starters, etc.)
• Functional check of protective earthing
• Heat monitoring of bolt and contact connections
• Tighten and lubricate contacts and bolts

Check Battery Banks

• Visual check of terminals
• Check capacity
• Dust elimination
• Voltage
• Dielectric resistance
• Check electrolyte

Relay Protection and Automatics

• Visual check of synchronized readings (date/time) of all terminals, and their compliance with the accurate astronomical time
• Check positions of mode knifes, switches, test units and protections
• Check power supply and data on the (LED) screen
• External and internal inspection
• Resistance of independent circuits (except for communication interface) towards the body and towards each other
• Dielectric test of independent circuits (except for communication interface) towards the body and towards each other
• Configuration files analysis
• Check correct values and phase angles (current and voltage)
• Check actuation and dropoff-to-pickup ratio at energizing of current (voltage) device by an external source; check LED lights at actuation
• Check actuation time against the set time parameters
• Check interaction of measuring units and logical protection circuits with monitoring of all relay contacts, and check visually LED lights and alarm indicators. All checks are conducted at energizing of control current, equal to 0.8 Urated, and under conditions for sequential actuation of each measuring unit and transmit signals to discrete protection inputs as per manufacturer’s operating instructions
• Check control functions and impact of output relay contacts in the control circuit of switching units
• Check event registration and signal oscillography
• Check control (on/off) of switching unit (at protection location)
• Check interaction with other protection, automatic, control and alarm units with impact on switching units
• Checks by operating current:
• a) check connections of current and voltage circuits to protection unit
• b) check values of current parameters and general status of the device by the screen and signal relay
• Check encroachment of secondary circuits
• Check actuation of protection, automated circuit breaker and signal passing at SCADA (blinker, event log)
• Check automatic switch over

Auxiliary Transformer

• Visual inspection
• Dry air purge, cleaning
• Check earth elements and control connections
• Inspect insulators and check tightening
• Check contacts, buses, cables; check for signs of temperature rise on contacts or buses
• Check bolt tightening and cleaning
• Check windings and switchboards
• Check settings and functioning of thermal protection device
• Heat monitoring
• Check actuation of thermal protection of signal and trip. Signal pass to SCADA (blinker actuation and signal appearance at the event log).

Main Busbar

• Check and monitor bolt tightening
• Check welds