CEED congratulates winner of 'Best industry-based final year thesis project' in UQ's School of ITEE

 

Each year, UQ academic staff judge the thesis demonstrations and posters from all final year undergraduate Electrical Engineering and IT students.  Projects are completed in a wide range of fields, and disciplines such as Power, Electronics, Software, Multimedia and others.

This year, the 'best industry-based final year thesis project' was awarded to Krishan Kara, a final year Electrical Engineering (Power) student.  CEED was delighted to donate the cash prize awarded to Krishan. 

Since graduating at the end of 2011, Krishan has accepted an exciting graduate position in Power Engineering, with Energex.

 

Krishan Kara (prize winner) receives his Award and cash prize, from CEED Director Graham Willett

(Technical) Abstract of Krishan's winning project:

Powerlnk Queensland (PLQ) operates 19 Static VAr Compensators (SVCs), of which 17 can be simulated in a purpose built simulator laboratory.  The aim of Krishan's project was to investigate the use of the laboratory to create a model for the Alligator Creek SVC, and to develop a procedure for ensuring that the laboratory was kept up-to-date.  It was expected that the resulting model would match real-world performance as proved by comparison with factory acceptance tests and that the development procedure was justified and formalised.

Siemens WinCC and Simatic Technology & Drives Control (Simatic TDC) software was developed for the Human Machine Interface (HMI) and TDC rack computers respectively; real site software was acquired and analysed, with the resultant key hardware differences to the simulator laboratory forming the basis for subsequent development.  An RSCAD model was produced in order to simulate the Alligator Creek substation in conjunction with the Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS), thereby providing virtual power system signals to the SVC control system. 

It was discovered that a communication error existed between the TDC and HMI computers.  Subsequent network data analysis revealed that the communication protocol between the two was based on a broadcast system, making it inherently secure from tracing attempts.  The RSCAD model was heavily tested using existing models, made possible due to the large similarity between Alligator Creek and other sites in terms of power system configuration.  Fundamental waveforms such as Thyristor Controlled Reactor (TCR) currents were found to be an extremely close match to the waveforms recorded in factory acceptance tests, hence proving the accuracy of the RSCAD model. 

It was concluded that the procedure for creating a PLQ SVC simulator model was developed, thereby allowing PLQ engineers to keep the laboratory up-to-date.  Additionally, the investigation into the aforementioned communication problem will form the basis of future work, as well as Disturbance Fault Recorder (DFR) and IPCOMM module integration.