Electricity Asset Management Plan 2019-2029
129
Vector Limited://
Figure 4-39 Age Profile for PQM
Condition and Health Although we are not experiencing any systemic failures or issues with this asset class the software in the older versions are technically unsupported and cannot be upgraded to the latest PQM reporting software. Notwithstanding that the fleet is not in poor health there are other factors that drive replacement as described below under Strategy. Strategy Vector uses a standardised and modularised design for PQM panels, allowing easy interchange or replacements. To ensure continued technical support of the hardware and software, older models of our PQM fleet are being replaced. Furthermore, going into the future the regulatory regime will require more detailed reporting on under frequency events and in the new energy future the penetration of DERs will place a higher priority on this reporting - the PQM fleet will be used for this purpose amongst others. Any replacement PQMs will have rapid capture functionality to comply with the regulatory requirements of the New Zealand generation market to provide high speed monitoring of electrical parameters for a period with a given number of seconds before and after a trigger event. The PQM fleet is also used to trigger interruptible load (hot water load shedding via ripple plants) in the Auckland region. Communication and network visibility are the backbones of the automation system and the RTUs in the network form a highly critical and essential part of the SCADA system. They collect information on the status of the network and allow remote control from Vector’s EOC of a large variety of plant in our zone substation and numerous sites in the suburban and rural networks The LANs and RTUs also provide visibility to the control centre of the status of the network and provide metrics of a large number of parameters. It also provides alarms when plant is reaching or exceeding capacity. Furthermore, data that pertains to access, security, fire detection and unlawful access are all dependant on RTUs. POPULATION AND AGE The asset life of an RTU is 20 years but Vector still has RTUs from the late eighties in operation. The table below is a summary of our RTU population and the graph shows an age profile. 4.7.4 NETWORK AUTOMATION SYSTEMS Overview
No of RTUs in the Auckland region
237
No of RTUs in the Northern region
156
No of RTUs at Lichfield
3
Table 4-25 Key statistics for RTUs
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