Our team provided early engagement feasibility study, cost estimation, scope development, design, procurement, construction, commissioning and energization services for expansion of the Genesee 330P 500-kV Substation, which plays a vital role in Alberta’s lower-carbon future. The substation connects Genesee Generating Station, which provides 1,300 megawatts of baseload generation, to the Alberta Interconnected Electric System (AIES).
The existing Genesee 330P substation was a 500-kV, one-and-a-half-breaker bus configuration substation with three 500-kV transmission line connections from the generating station and three transmission line connections to the nearby 500-kV substations. The existing 138-kV switchyard was fed from 100 MVA coupling transformers providing backup power to the generation units and station service power to Sunnybrook Substation and a local mining facility.
The substation expansion was built 120 meters west of the existing switchyard and includes two incomplete one-and-a-half-breaker bus schemes, a new 500/138-kV 60/80/100 MVA power transformer, 500-kV live tank circuit breakers, 500-kV single-phase current transformers (CTs), single-phase bus and line capacitive voltage transformers (CVTs), disconnect switches, and a 37-meter-by-7-meter prefabricated control building. The control building houses protection and control relays, panels, SCADA, telecommunications, substation automation devices, security, battery banks and chargers, automatic transfer switches, and AC/DC service panels. The substation expansion included 138-kV double bus with five 138-kV transmission line connections. All 138-kV equipment was demolished from the exiting yard, which was retrofitted to install two 500-kV A-frames with slack spans, connecting the existing substation to the new substation.
The project required a complex outage cutover sequence that minimized outage durations and maintained reliability, requiring five existing 138-kV lines to be relocated from the existing substation to the new 138-kV outdoor switchgear in the new substation.