During the last quarter of 2007, EFACEC concluded the implementation of a Substation Automation system for the Alqueva Substation (400/60 kV) of REN (Redes Energéticas Nacionais), Portugal.

The substation is situated in Portel municipality, in the Alentejo province, next to the Alqueva hydro power plant located in the Guadiana River, being integrated into REN’s transmission network. This substation is interconnected at 400 kV level with the Spanish REE (Red Eléctrica de España) in Brovales, with the Alqueva hydro power plant and with REN’s Ferreira do Alentejo substation.

The substation has a breaker-and-a-half topology (400 kV) and double bus-bar (60 kV), being prepared for a future growth, especially at the 400 kV level.

The current substation layout is the following:
- One complete breaker-and-a-half bay (line-line)
- One complete breaker-and-a-half bay (line-transformer)
- One EFACEC 170 MVA transformer, with dissociated phases
- Three 60 kV lines, one of them for the connection to the future Moura’s photovoltaic power plant
- One 60 kV bus-coupler bay

The scope of supply, of turn-key type, included the commissioning of an EFACEC’s command and control system, integrating a third party protection system.

The Substation Automation System, based on CLP 500SCC, has an architecture composed of two independent communication networks, one for the 60 kV level and another for the 400 kV level.

In this supply, the following type of EFACEC’s devices had been used:
- TPU S420 for the implementation of automatisms and analogue measuring
- SYNC 420 for control execution and circuit breaker synchro-checking
- UAC 420 for the general services and operator selection board
- TPU TC420 for automatic voltage regulation
- UA 500 for signalling and alarm grouping, as well as for the communication with the protections
  through the IEC 60870-5-103 protocol

Third party devices had been integrated in the protection system architecture, included within our scope of supply. Its integration at the communication level is a common task performed by EFACEC, due to the fact that, systems based on CLP 500 allow to implement several protocols, of standard or proprietary type, namely those being implemented by other suppliers.