Con Edison strengthens storm hardening efforts with Siemens mobile substations

Siemens is providing Con Edison, the utility that powers New York City and local areas, with six new mobile medium-voltage substations that can be used for rapid emergency response. The technology, with plug-and-play functionality, will give Con Edison the ability to deploy and fully operate a power substation within days instead of the months it can traditionally take to replace damaged gear. The rapid deployment mobile substations will help Con Edison increase resilience by reducing the impact of power outages during extreme weather, unexpected events, or even during routine maintenance to minimize downtime.

“Part of resiliency strategy – in addition to preventing power outages – is to restore service to customers as quickly as possible during a major storm or other emergency,” said Robert Brantley, Chief Engineer of Equipment & Field Engineering at Con Edison. “These mobile substations we developed with Siemens are groundbreaking technology that will help us serve our customers better during extreme events.”

“Traditionally when a utility’s substation equipment is impacted by extreme weather, or even needs to be taken out of commission for routine maintenance, outages can occur,” said Brian Dula, head of Siemens Medium Voltage & Systems business Unit in US. “Our goal in designing these mobile substations is to give utilities like Con Edison the flexibility to bring the technology right to where it’s needed and the ability to quickly energize so as to minimize the duration of an outage.”

The Con Edison-specified mobile substation jointly customized with Siemens contains a seven-circuit breaker lineup of Siemens 8DA10 gas-insulated medium voltage switchgear, providing power up to 93.3 megavolt ampere (MVA) in selectable voltage levels. The special slide-out and slide-up functionality allows a very compact design of the substation so that it can be easily transported to any location within the utility’s network without any transportation permits.

The substation can be raised via a wireless hand-held device for easy access to the bottom cable entry to the switchgear. Through the slide-out functionality, the aisle can be extended to allow ample working space. Operators can enter the substation to perform operations, testing and maintenance when required in the climate-controlled environment. The technology features an integral ground and test device which allows safe and fast grounding and a highly sophisticated SCADA system enables the mobile substation to be remotely operated via an intelligent touchscreen.

Four out of the six substations have been delivered to ConEd with the remaining expected by the spring of 2019.

Siemens’ mobile substations are just one of several solutions the company is providing to Con Edison to strengthen the resiliency of their power grids. In 2016, Siemens delivered its first innovative plug-and-play mobile resiliency transformers to Con Edison. While it usually takes several weeks to transport and install a new power transformer on-site, Siemens’ mobile resiliency transformers were installed with Con Edison in record time within 30 work hours. Con Edison is also relying on Siemens intelligent distribution feeder automation technology that separates power networks to keep power flowing to customers in section of Lower Manhattan during severe flooding. Siemens is also supporting Con Edison’s advanced metering initiative through its EnergyIP meter data management software that will manage nearly five million meters by 2022.