The Transition of Load Shedding Infrastructure from PLC Platform to IEC61850 Protocol in Nickel Processing Plant With Static Frequency Converter

This paper documented an experience in transiting and improving the load shedding infrastructure in a nickel processing plant (NPP). The motivation of load shedding improvement is the NPP’s policy to reduce the carbon footprint by transforming the power generation into an eco-friendly system. As a result, the power system characteristic is metamorphosed. The NPP owned a static frequency converter (SFC) which provides supplemental power when the loss of the main generation. However, the NPP experience SFC failure and ended in a blackout situation. A thorough analysis is presented in this work with several possible solutions. The investigation found that an improvement to the load shedding system is required to prevent SFC being overloaded. A transition scenario between PLC to relay based and its implementation are documented in this paper.