BT Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station

Project Overview:

The BT site at Goonhilly is used to send and receive communications signals via satellite around the world. The reliability and integrity of electric supplies to satellite dishes are of key importance in maintaining these essential communications links for BT.

Cardiff Power was commissioned to carry out a protection co-ordination study on the 11kV distribution system. The study aimed to minimise the disruption to BT operation in the event of faults on the power network.

Project Involvement:

• Preparation of electrical model of the site suitable for protection grading studies. This included part of the upstream Western Power Distribution (WPD) system;

• Protection co-ordination studies under both normal and abnormal conditions to ensure that the minimum equipment is disconnected in the event of a system fault;

• Examination of protection operation during generation (island) mode operation in the event of failure of the WPD system;

• Recommended protection settings, schedules and a summary of the main operational implications of faults on the network.