Automated Maintenance of Protection systems

AUTOMATED MAINTENANCE OF PROTECTION SYSTEMS (AMPS) CHALLENGE Make power systems more reliable by automating maintenance testing of protective relays and associated potential and current transformers. IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ THE FULL CHALLENGE BRIEF THAT CONTAINS ALL THE CHALLENGE AND SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS AND RULES ([login to view URL]) ***We held our first Webinar April 7th, 2021 1PM-2PM PT/4-5PM ET to learn more about what Reclamation seeks from the solutions. The Webinar was a great opportunity to get clarifications on the contest. If you missed it, or want a refresher, here is a link to the recorded session: [login to view URL] PHASE 1: WHITE PAPER CHALLENGE Can you help further Reclamation’s mission to protect their hydroelectric plants? Do you want to work on a big infrastructure problem? This Challenge gives you the opportunity to improve the safety and reliability of hydroelectric powerplants and to win your share of the $250,000 prize purse. To participate, you will need to create a prototype that automates maintenance testing of the plants’ protection systems. Your solution will improve the safety and reliability of the plants, keep the energy flowing while the tests are run, and allow engineers and operators more time to address other important issues. Up to 10 solutions will win $10,000 and will move forward to phase 2 CHALLENGE OVERVIEW The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) is looking for solutions to automate comprehensive testing of the existing protection system at hydropower facilities. This $250,000 Challenge seeks prototypes that automate protection systems testing without requiring plants to be off-line and that are not labor intensive. While there can be a variety of approaches to solve this challenge including a single tool, a group of tools, a continuous monitoring system, or a surveillance system, all solutions must result in a decrease in the employee time required for testing, an elimination of plant downtime for testing, and an increase in plant safety and reliability. Solving this challenge will increase hydropower plant generation reliability and avoid the opportunity cost of unit outages. The solutions are being requested by Reclamation for their hydropower facilities however, solutions will likely be applicable to many other protective relay systems. Reclamation is the largest wholesale water supplier in the United States, operating 53 hydroelectric powerplants that produced 40 billion kilowatt-hours, on average, annually for the last 10 years. After the 2003 Blackout, a comprehensive list of testing protocols was developed and designed to prevent another large power outage. The results are included in the North American Electric Reliability Corporation Protection and Control (NERC PRC) regulatory standards which outlines key activities required to achieve basic utility reliability. NERC PRC-005-6 ([login to view URL]) , Protection System, Automatic Reclosing, and Sudden Pressure Relaying Maintenance includes the required testing and maintenance protocols related to this challenge. The current testing protocols are labor-intensive and often require the plant to be off-line; however, the NERC protection system maintenance standard allows for most of the maintenance activities to be automated and, with the extensive adoption of microprocessor-based relays, this automation is possible. The AMPS Challenge will have two phases, a White Paper Challenge, and a Prototype Challenge. The Challenge will last fourteen months from the White Paper Challenge launch to the final Prototype Challenge award. Solvers will have 5.5 months to deliver a White Paper submission describing their technical approach to the problem. Up to ten solutions will receive an award of $10,000 to move forward in the Prototype Challenge. Solvers will then have 5 months to complete their prototype.