ERM was engaged to audit and review site wide protection settings – all outgoing feeders from the Mine Power Station. The client had been experiencing numerous nuisance HV and LV trips causing many hours of downtime (processing and mining). The trips also presented major safety concerns to the client when conducting fault finding activities post nuisance trips, as at times site-wide blackouts resulted from the trips (due to lack of coordination).

ERM developed and agreed upon a broad project framework and protection philosophy / approach with the client. ERM then utilised ETAP Electrical Power System Analysis Software to review and model the existing and proposed protection settings.

As part of the study, several ongoing issues during voltage disturbance events were also investigated with solutions recommended to the client. This assisted the client with a better understanding of the state of the electrical network as well as avoiding unnecessary downtime and associated risks when fault finding.