SMOS Light Success for Crossrail
London’s new Crossrail link will see the first UK deployment of ABB’s unique SMOS Light modular substation switchgear. It will form the heart of turnkey packages for three new traction substations that also include Portable Relay Rooms (PRRs) housing IEC61850 protection and control equipment.
Crossrail is among the most significant infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the UK, with a total investment approaching £15 billion. From improving journey times across London, to easing congestion and offering better connections, Crossrail will change the way people travel around the capital. The route will run over 100 km through including new tunnels under central London.
FSKII+
SMOS Light reduces construction, testing and commissioning time SMOS Light integrates all the key elements required for isolating the supply to the catenaries, as well as for sectionalising of individual parts of track during inspection and maintenance including: the FSKII+ circuit breaker, disconnector and voltage transformers (VTs) and current transformers (CTs). They are all combined within a modular steel structure, which is fully assembled and tested at ABB’s railway centre of excellence in Geneva and delivered to site ready for installation.
AIS
SMOS Light fits the strategic business decision made by Network Rail to move away from Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) towards AIS for all new projects in sites where space allows. Currently, ABB is the only OEM with an AIS solution for Network Rail.
Portable Relay Rooms
The turnkey package is completed by Portable Relay Rooms (PRRs) housing state-of-the-art IEC 61850-based protection and control equipment, including the first Network Rail installation of ABB RTU560 and REF620 IEDs (intelligent electronic devices).
The PRRs will be assembled, configured and tested at ABB’s unique System Verification Simulator (SVS) at Stone. The benefit from Network Rail’s perspective is that this high level of factory testing effectively de-risks the project, as the PRRs will be delivered to site ready to ‘plug and play’.
To support Crossrail, Network Rail is upgrading its power infrastructure. The three new ABB traction substations will provide the 25 kV (kilovolt) supply for the western, surface sections of the route. They will be based on the unique Structure Mounted Outdoor Switchgear (SMOS) Light modular Air Insulated Switchgear (AIS) concept, developed to help railway infrastructure owners cut around 30 percent of the time required for construction, testing and commissioning of traction power distribution switchgear.
