High Voltage Power System Upgrade- 11kV Private Network
HV Services Services is in the process of completing major construction on the High Voltage power system upgrade project at Kirkcudbright Training Centre, Scotland. Kirkcudbright Training Centre is an MOD base on the northern coastline of the Solway Firth in Dumfries and Galloway and occupies an exposed headland 5 km south of the town of Kirkcudbright. It is the principal live firing training facility for crew served weapon platforms (vehicle and rotary wing) in Scotland and the north of England.
The project is for Landmarc Support Services who work in partnership with DIO (Defence Infrastructure Organisation) to manage the national Defence training estate. It will include replacing the existing HV power system and designing and constructing a new system which includes excavating and installing 20km of cable across watercourses, roads, forests and agricultural terrain.
Upgrading the site’s supply will also include the removal of an existing overhead 11kV system and retrofitting it with new electrical plant, through installing 10 off 11kV package substations across a site that spans over 4,700 acres (1,900 hectares) of farmland.
Over the course of two weeks, HV’s high voltage project services team have begun dismantling the main intake substation and are now in the process of rebuilding it at a new location. All cables have been diverted, tested and will be commissioned and energised at the new location.
Major plant was delivered this week from Schneider electric, which included 14 off 11kV transformers of various types and sizes and these have now been positioned at their new locations.
6 existing substations have been dismantled and each one has had the oil drained and recovered in readiness for disposal through an environmentally friendly process. The existing main 11kV intake substation has also been dismantled and removed, allowing Scottish power to connect their metering alongside the newly installed main intake substation.
HV’s High Voltage Engineering Manager commented: ‘We are very pleased with the progress of the High Voltage Power System Upgrade project and all major plant is in the process of being installed and commissioned. We look forward to completing the majority of construction work by the end of March and are delighted to be working with Landmarc Support Services and the DIO (Defence Infrastructure Organisation) on this critical project to improve the provision of power across the UK’s national Defence training estate.”
Read more about the technical specification and project background
