ECI  provided drawing reviews and relay protection and control settings for the $1.4 billion Iberdrola USA Central Maine Power Maine Power Reliability Program (MPRP). The MPRP project consisted of four (4) new 345kV Stations, one (1) new 115kV station, two (2) existing 345kV station upgrades, five (5) existing 115kV station upgrades, and relay changes to thirty-seven (37) remote 345kV and 115kV stations. Interim settings were also provided as needed during the five-year construction schedule from 2010 to 2015. ECI’s project responsibility also included management of a sub-contracted, Maine-based integration company that included design lab setup and testing.

The settings protection work was all inclusive, with relay settings philosophy documentation and templates, relay database management, system modeling, and impedance updates, system relay coordination for the 345kV, 115kV, and 34kV system, review of out-of-step settings applications, sequence of event recorder settings, test plans, construction and commissioning support, and as-built settings follow up. Additionally, ECI provided integration settings upgrades to all substations, including IEC 61850 GOOSE technology implementation, new HMIs, complete relay maintenance monitoring, and integration system commissioning.

This project included a detailed Quality Assurance/Quality Control process for all deliverables. Conventions for file naming and revision tracking were carefully implemented. A weekly look-ahead of all activities for the project were provided for the duration of the project. All final settings for construction as well as any change letters were stamped and signed by the engineer of responsible charge for the settings.

Presentations were also made to the Northeast Power Coordinating Council, Task force on System Protection in support of protection philosophy and changes to existing settings applications.