May 3, 2006
Open Systems International, Inc. (OSI) is pleased to announce that the Basslink Interconnect/DC Line has entered commercial service. Tasmania and Victoria are now connected by the world's longest sub-sea DC electricity cable. Basslink was commissioned following a 14-month campaign when the 290-kilometre Basslink cable running from McGaurans Beach, Gippsland to Four Mile Bluff, northern Tasmania was brought ashore on the island state.
Basslink is a historic Australian energy initiative that allows electricity trade between Tasmania and mainland Australia, enabling Tasmania to enter the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM). The security of supply on both sides of Bass Strait has been strengthened; protecting Tasmania against the risk of drought-constrained energy shortages and helping protect Victoria and the Southern states against the forecast shortage of peak load power.
OSI supplied a comprehensive System Protection Scheme (SPS) to the Tasmanian Transmission Authority, Transend Pty, Ltd. The SPS is a hybrid system that incorporates demand-supply rebalancing for the control of Tasmanian system frequency and protection functions. This rebalancing automatically removes transmission asset thermal overloads in the event of losing either the Interconnector or one of eighteen transmission elements that are critical to Basslink transfers. The SPS system has been integrated with the existing Transend Pty, Ltd. Energy Management System, which uses OSI's monarch™ platform. The flexible monarch architecture allowed National Grid Australia Pty. Ltd (NGA) and Transend to incorporate the SPS with minimal impact to the existing Energy Management functionality utilized at Transend.
"The secure operation of the Tasmanian power system at high Basslink flows is critically dependent upon the System Protection Scheme. Its successful development, included implementation of engineering algorithms, data archiving, monthly performance reporting tools, and final integration into a live system. It involved the close cooperation of Transend, OSI, National Grid Australia, the Australian National Electricity Market Management Company, and customers and generators who participate in its operation," said Michael Green, Executive Manager, TWEM Project Team at Transend Pty. Ltd.
"The Basslink project is a historic Australian initiative and we are proud to have played a role in this project. This has been a very rewarding project technically and its success has been due to the cooperative collaboration of many organizations including OSI, Transend, National Grid Australia, many subcontractors, and Tasmanian industrial customers and generators," said Bahman Hoveida, CEO and President of OSI.
National Grid Australia Pty. Ltd (www.nationalgrid.com.au), responsible for the Basslink Interconnector, is a business unit of National Grid, one of the world's largest utilities, focused on delivering energy safely, reliably and efficiently. National Grid owns and operates gas and electricity transmission and gas distribution networks in the UK and US and electricity distribution networks in the US.
Transend Networks Pty Ltd (www.transend.com.au), owned by the state of Tasmania, owns and operates the electricity transmission system in Tasmania. Transend transmits electricity from 29 power stations to substations around the state and owns 3500 circuit kilometres of transmission lines, 45 substations, and nine switching stations.
OSI (www.osii.com) provides open, state-of-the-art, and high-performance automation solutions to electric utilities worldwide. These solutions include Energy Management Systems (EMS), Distribution Management Systems (DMS), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems, and Generation Management Systems (GMS), as well as individual software products and e-business solutions for electric utility operations. OSI is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
For additional information regarding this news release, please contact: news@osii.com.
