Prominent Hill Success

Prominent Hill Success

28th October 2020

RXHK are proud to announce the successful commissioning of their STATCOMs at the OZ Minerals Prominent Hill site.

Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions the installation supervision and commissioning plan was successfully adapted so that the equipment could be commissioned by a team of South Australian commissioning engineers who were supported remotely by RXHK’s out of country commissioning engineers.

The STATCOM equipment was ordered via the EPC contractor, TGOOD Australia Pty Ltd, who was responsible for the 132kV and 11kV switchyard expansion works at Prominent Hill mine.  RXHK has also undertaken work at OZ Minerals’ Carrapateena mine.

The Prominent Hill mine is located in the South Australia outback. This contract award is now one of four contracts awarded to RXHK in the Australian market in the last two years. Contract awards that have recognised our company's technical capability, product quality, service concept and collaborative approach to project management.

The RXHK design and supply contract included two ±16Mvar 11kV water-cooled STATCOMs, each with 2x short-term overload capability, along with a dual redundant Master Controller.  The Master Controller key functionality was to provide an integrated 132kV voltage control scheme for the reconfigured 132kV supply from ElectraNet’s Mt Gunson South substation, including integrating of the existing fixed and dynamic compensation systems, and allowance for future expandability.  The low short-circuit level of the location due to the long transmission line posed additional challenges for the large mill motor starts which drove the additional short-term overload and control system requirements.  The technical challenge required detailed network studies using PSSE and PSCAD as well as control system hardware verification using the RTDS platform.

The ease of installation and ability to integrate into an existing operational brown-field substation were key aspects to the selection of RXHK as the preferred supplier for this project.  The STATCOM equipment supplied has been designed to be installed and operated in accordance with the local Australian environment and conditions, and in compliance with AS, IEC and local regulations and standards.

At RXHK we are proud to be supporting Australian industry and helping to delivery efficient, robust and cost effective solutions to challenging environments and grid conditions.