October 2008
News > Latest news > Substations 'Go Live'
Substations 'Go Live'
Capula Ltd, the UK's leading advanced automation and real-time business intelligence provider is delivering the contract for the Upgrade and Modification to the Substation Control System (SCS) at National Grid's Grain LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) Terminal at Grain in Kent.
Work on the project has started and is due to be completed by the end of 2009. This will extend the potential asset life of the system well into the 2030's. With the distinct advantages of minimal outages, virtually zero down time and at a tenth of the cost, National Grid have acknowledged that the program of upgrade, rather than total replacement is fundamental to their network development and improvement strategy.
Modifications and upgrades to the electricity supply at Grain are part of the essential work required before the LNG terminal can be expanded – a project that will run until 2010 and see a £800m investment in the site, giving it the capacity to import and store 20% of the UK's forecasted gas demand by 2010. The expansion will triple the terminal's capacity from 3.3million tonnes to 9.8million by the winter 2008/9 and then by an additional 5million tonnes by the winter 2010/11.
Commenting on the contract Capula's Business Development Manager, Chris Conn, said, “This is a significant project, Grain is the biggest LNG terminal in the UK and we are proud to be involved.
The project will increase the UK's gas storage capability, having greater storage capacity will reduce our dependency on piped-in foreign supplies during periods of peak demand, it will also hopefully reduce price fluctuations and make us less vulnerable to the politics that surround international gas supplies. Countries like France, with a greater storage capacity than the UK certainly didn't suffer the huge price increases we experienced last winter, so this expansion is good news for everyone.”
He continues “Capula has provided solutions to the electricity transmission and distribution market since 1994 and our solutions support over 60% of substations that control the electricity transmission network in the UK.”