Challenges

• The electrical system used by the customer should be modeled with added infrastructure as in the design. A 10kV distribution system supplies around 20MW loads and must be expanded. The main substation is named SS4, and the unique electrical model should include all transformers, busbars, lines, cables, relays, and breakers, including actual electrical parameters.
• Understanding of the existing protection philosophy as well as the actual incident energy value, proposing the proper settings for the new and existing equipment, to achieve high-level coordination and mitigation.
• Definition of the electrical protection settings for the facility, including electrical installation in Brownfields and in Greenfields (new installation). Several loads will be added to various areas as part of the expansion project, according to the design. 
• Identifying necessary mitigation actions to reduce the Arc Flash incident energy within the required limit of 8 calories per centimeter square.
• Verify and validate existing and new proposed protection settings, proposed coordination, and arc flash mitigation.
• Delivering an understandable report and providing interactive visuals to explain the proposed philosophy of complex protection to stakeholders.
• Evaluating cases and operations with clear visualizations of processes, ensuring that real-time simulations are presented understandably.

Selected applications

They chose ETAP Safety & Protection Products, such as StarZ Auto Evaluation and others, to work on an easy and flexible platform for analyzing the expanded factory's power distribution systems. The ETAP Digital-Twin model was the base solution. 

Main Customer Benefits

• ETAP's Digital model of the electrical grid, specific to the customer's electrical network, enables extensive electrical analysis. During the factory expansion, observing and fitting what customers should do to mitigate arc flash and correct protection is useful. The Grid Digital Twin is the main thing electricians should use.
• Thanks to the virtual model, engineers found and confirmed where the limit of eight calories per centimeter square was exceeded. The resulting value on the busbar was around 10 calories per centimeter square. Finally, the Arc Flash level was successfully mitigated by finding the combination of time and current, leading to eight calories per centimeter square.
• ETAP is a single tool for multiple electrical analyses. Users can analyze short circuits, protection coordination, arc flash, and other things on the same platform. He can follow the correlation between additional loads, electrical settings, types of equipment, and cables. It increases awareness of the operation and dramatically reduces the time spent on studies.
• High-quality reporting using a combined tabular and graphical view, with online visibility and accessibility, was delivered. The client accepted the new philosophy of protection, protection coordination, and Arc Flash mitigation. 
• ETAP StarZ automatically identifies the protection zone. Thanks to Intelligent Automatic Zone Detection functionality, engineers can automatically detect all symbols related to the analyzed ones. Users can work with a simple motor or transformer or select all switchboards to find possible events, such as overheating.
• Greenfields and Brownfields are protected and coordinated well together. The Auto-Evaluation function compares tripping and withstanding characteristics against the defined rule book. Engineers can analyze it on a micro and macro scale to avoid dangerous mistakes.
• The ETAP Digital Twin model allows users to manage multiple configurations and case studies for future modeled electrical networks.

Opinions

So, what I really love about the ETAP is that we can really combine modern calculations and properties together. So, if I'm going to select the motor starting model, and I'm going to run a motor acceleration case that has been set previously during the project development. Then, I can open the plot manager, set up the motor, and, for example, have a look at the current starting point. So, we can see here the real starting current. The real starting time is based on the plant condition, which is fantastic.
By Ms. Giovanni Gambirasio, Director of Selecty

So, in the ETAP software, a fantastic functionality named Auto-Evaluation exists. Everything is based on the Rule Book. So, I have created my own rule book. Our company has validated it during various projects according to standards and so on. So, the rule book collects a series of rules, a series of time grading discrimination margins, and a proper margin between the tripping characteristics, withstand characteristics and transient values. And between the value-tripping characteristics to ensure coordination and protection. If I select, for example, a portion of the new greenfield, the two motors' outgoing feeder protection, and I just run the Auto-Evaluation, ETAP compares for me the tripping characteristic, the withstand characteristic against the rules that have been defined. 
By Ms. Giovanni Gambirasio, Director of Selecty