UFTO
PROPRIETARY
Final Report
Technology Transfer Opportunities in the Federal Laboratories
Ontario Hydro Technologies (OHT)
October 1997
Prepared for:
Utility Federal Technology Opportunities (UFTO)
By:
Edward Beardsworth
Consultant
This report is part of a series examining technology opportunities at National Laboratories of possible interest to electric utilities
Contents:
page
Summary
Overview & Organization
Technologies & Programs
This report is proprietary and confidential. It is for internal use by personnel of companies that are subscribers in the UFTO multi-client program. It is not to be otherwise copied or distributed except as authorized in writing.
Summary
This report details findings about technology and technology transfer opportunities at the Ontario Hydro that might be of strategic interest to electric utilities. It is based on a visit to the lab in September 1996 and subsequent contacts, as part of the UFTO multiclient project.
Background
Noting the tremendous scope of research underway in the research facilities of the U.S. government, and a very strong impetus on the government’s part to foster commercial partnering with industry and applications of the technology it has developed, the UFTO program has been established as a multi-client study of the opportunities thus afforded energy utilities and their many subsidiaries.
Overview
Since 1912, Ontario Hydro Technologies (OHT) has been the research and technology services arm of Ontario Hydro, one of North America’s largest utilities. OHT is one of Canada’s largest industrial research organizations, with a staff at one time of over 500 people, now at 350, and comprehensive facilities located in Toronto, Ontario. OHT has done pioneering work in the past on 500 kV transmission systems, scrubber systems for fossil generation, and zirconium metallurgy in support of the CANDU nuclear reactors. More recently, OHT has made key developments in fuel cell technology, power system stabilization, fibre optics, and customer interactions.
In the context of potential changes in Ontario’s electricity industry (and the commitment of Ontario Hydro’s owners, the Ontario Government, to opening the Ontario electricity market to competition), Ontario Hydro began to position itself more and more as a commercial player, and OHT as a competitive provider of technology products and services.
In 1993, OHT was set up as a separate subsidiary, and began adding to its portfolio by making significant investments in alternate energy including biomass, wind and solar developments. Also, OHT embarked on a developing a set of products based on its system stabilizer technology. OHT has also developed a number of other products and services that have the potential to dramatically improve utility performance. Some of these are introduced below.
In 1997, both concern about the emerging competitive environment and strong local criticism about its nuclear power program forced Ontario Hydro to re-focus its energies on the core business of generation. As a result, the scope of OHT’s programs was cut back, limiting product development efforts to those which directly serve the electricity industry, or those which could have a significant financial benefit for Ontario Hydro and similar utilities. OHT expects to continue to earn a substantial portion of its budget from outside clients, by providing expertise, consulting and services to the energy and process industries, on a fee-for-service basis.
More changes at OHT are occurring on almost a daily basis, as speculation continues about the parent utility’s future structure. (The very latest rumors suggest it will split into two crown corporations, one for generation and one for transmission.)
Organization:
Currently OHT is under the leadership of Dr. Jim Brown, Vice- President Technology Services and New Product Development for Ontario Hydro. OHT is organized into two major divisions: New Product Development (NPD) headed up by Dr. Frank Chu, and Technology Services (TS) led by Mr. Dave Dodd. NPD has in it a number of product development projects, while TS has departments dealing with Power System Technologies, High Voltage and High Current Testing, Mechanical Systems Performance, Process Technologies, Environmental Technologies, Civil & Geotechnologies, Materials Technologies, Component Integrity, and Zirconium Metallurgy.
The general contact at the labs is:
Mr. Alfred Mo of the Marketing Department
416 207-6024, moa@oht.hydro.on.ca
All queries should be directed to either Alfred or to the individual noted for the specific item of interest.
Technologies & Programs
Covered in this report:
• Powernetics Products
Digital Power System Stabilizer (DPSS):
Programmable Synchrocheck Relay (PSR)
Microprocessor Digital Frequency Recorder (MDFR)
Power System Disturbance Recorder (PSDR)
• Maintenance Planning Advisor
• Optical Ground Wire Test facility
• Fuel Cell Testing and Development
• Real-Time Digital Simulator Services
• Gas Insulated Substation Diagnostics
• Non-destructive Evaluation
• Fall Protection Engineering
• High Current and High Voltage Facilities
• Concrete Technology
Durability Studies
Inspection of Concrete Structures, Life Cycle Management
Concrete Repair Projects (Leakage, Surface, Structural)
Development of Specialised Concrete for Specific Applications
Concrete Inspection, QA/QC System Design & Audit
Concrete Repair Materials Formulation & Testing
• Geotechnology
Specialised Drilling for Rock, Concrete or Soil
Drain, Pipe and Tunnel Inspection & Cleaning
Geological & Soils Monitoring & Assessment
Instrumentation of Rock, Concrete & Wood Structures
Risk Assessment
Geographic Information Systems
• Powernetics Products
Over thirty years of experience with Ontario Hydro’s complex power system has led to the development of the Powernetics line of products designed to increase reliability, stability, protection and control of power systems. These products have undergone extensive field testing, and are backed by training, consulting, and technical services. General contact: Mr. Mike Bell 416-207-6721, belljm@oht.hydro.on.ca
– Digital Power System Stabilizer (DPSS): Ontario Hydro’s power system is characterized by a few large generation sources and several large sinks of power, leading to the potential of system instabilities. (About 40% of Ontario Hydro’s energy is produced by its 12 CANDU reactors located at three sites in southern Ontario.) To reduce the possibility of large system oscillations, OHT developed a digital system stabilizer that has been installed on most major Ontario Hydro generators. With this stabilizer technology, system stability has been maintained even under major system disturbances, including the sudden loss of over 10% of generation (2700MW) during a recent event.
– Programmable Synchrocheck Relay (PSR): The PSR facilitates the automatic closing of breakers at remotely controlled transformer stations. The PSR is fully programmable to match transformer station characteristics, including the presence of old and new equipment. Generally the PSR can be installed with little or no programming and minimal wiring changes.
– Microprocessor Digital Frequency Recorder (MDFR): Reliable high-resolution recordings of frequency disturbances provide a basis for better analysis and understanding of power system performance and integrity. With greater system interconnection, frequency change data is becoming more and more important. The MDFR is a micro-processor controlled desktop device which records powerline frequency swings. It can be automatically set to record frequency changes which deviate by a set amount from 60Hz. The MDFR will find application in the assessment of control and protection schemes. The data can be accessed, and the MDFR can be reprogrammed remotely.
– Power System Disturbance Recorder (PSDR): This device allows utilities to analyze system performance under major disturbance conditions, such as transmission line faults. When installed at major generating, transformer and switching stations, the collected data will provide valuable information on the performance of protection and control schemes. The PDSR will also allow the collection of data to verify operating security limits.
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• Maintenance Planning Advisor
Effective management of assets provides a competitive edge, achieved by operating existing equipment to full capacity and by optimizing maintenance plans. Through rigorous analysis of specific equipment performance data, optimum maintenance schemes can be identified. Maintenance Planning Advisor is an advanced probabilistic model which takes operational information on equipment and converts that data into remaining life and life- cycle cost. It was originally developed for Ontario Hydro’s rotating equipment, but has now been extended to substation components and circuit breakers. In one application for a US client, the MPA predicted a saving of 33% if more inspections and fewer maintenance activities were carried out. This program is also supported by expert consulting services. Contact: Mr. Mark Vainberg 416-207-6451, vainberg@rd.hydro.on.ca
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• Optical Ground Wire Test facility
A special facility at OHT is a long span room, which has been developed into a fibre optic cable and hardware testing facility. The facility and its services are being used both by manufacturers and utilities wanting to install fibre optic loaded cables. The facility is capable of testing a comprehensive range of mechanical, electrical and optical parameters to meet both ANSI and IEC standards. The facility includes an optical power sensor with 0.001 dB resolution and a 1550 nm laser source with high long-term and short-term stability. The comprehensive range of tests includes: aeolian vibrations, galloping, creep, fibre strain, stress-strain, strain margin, temperature cycling etc. Contact: Mr. Craig Pon 416-207-6741, ponc@rd.hydro.on.ca.
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• Fuel Cell Testing and Development
Fuel cell development has been an area of expertise at OHT for many years. Most recently OHT has been involved with Westinghouse in testing their solid oxide fuel cell elements under high- pressure conditions. This fuel cell set a record at OHT for the power produced from a single oxide fuel cell. The power output was 277 watts at 10 atmospheres was about 30% greater than that achieved by Westinghouse at atmospheric pressure. OHT has considerable experience with Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells (PAFC), having operated a 40KW grid connected cell for several years, and having supervised the operation of a 200 KW system at one of Ontario Hydro’s regional offices. OHT’s experts are available to help you with your fuel cell development needs. Contact: Mr. Chris Cheh 416-207-6159, chehc@rd.hydro.on.ca.
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• Real-Time Digital Simulator Services
OHT has the experience, facilities and expertise to provide a wide range of services using the Real-Time-Digital Simulator (RTDS). This highly sophisticated modular computing system models any user defined electrical system with complex electrical components (transmission lines generators, transformers) based on an electromagnetic transient pulse type of simulation.
This allows the testing of your relay or control equipment to be tested in a closed-loop mode acting on the simulated system as it would in the actual installation. The some of the elements modeled by the RTDS include: current and power transformers with user defined saturation characteristics, circuit breakers, fault switches, synchronous machines with exciters, turbine/governor, and stabilizer models, static VAR compensators, HVDC power and control components. The RTDS system is located at OHT, but its outputs can be applied anywhere on a power system. Contact: Mr. John Kuffel 416-207-6539, kuffelj@rd.hydro.on.ca.
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• Gas Insulated Substation Diagnostics
OHT has over two decades of R&D and development experience with GIS technology and is an acknowledged expert in the area of partial discharge (PD) analysis. In particular OHT has developed a diagnostic system that acts as an early warning system for developing problems within a GIS. This system works through the installation of specifically designed partial discharge couplers in access ports within the GIS. The high frequency PD signals are converted to slower pulses and analysed by computer to assess the state of the system.
In addition to this system OHT offers research and consulting services to assist utilities with emerging GIS problems. These services include: S2F10 gas and moisture analysis, GIS failure analysis, very fast transient analysis, on -site testing services, high sensitivity XIPD testing for GIS spacers. OHT’s services can be of value both once problems have developed and also to forestall problems. OHT’s experts are available to visit clients and do some on site investigations. The most sophisticated tools such as the x-ray induced partial discharge analyzer are however are located at OHT. Contact: Mr. John Kuffel 416-207-6539, kuffelj@rd.hydro.on.ca.
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• Non-destructive Evaluation
OHT is an acknowledged world leader in non-destructive evaluation, having produced a number of sophisticated products for the analysis of components in the nuclear, aerospace and petroleum industries. Products include TRUSTIE (Tiny Rotating Ultrasonic Tube Inspection System), OPIT (Optical Profilometry Inspection Tool), FRILS (Flaw Replication Inspection Laser Scanner), and Winspect a sophisticated software tool for the control, interpretation and display of output from the other systems. OHT’s experts will carry out site visits with a limited set of NDE systems. In many cases NDE tools may need to be modified to meet specific client’s system requirements. Contact: Mr. Kash Mahil 416-207-6816, mahilks@oht.hydro.on.ca.
– TRUSTIE: is an ultrasonic based tool to inspect steam generator and heat exchanger tubes for corrosion, cracking and deformation. TRUSTIE: is capable of inspecting tubes as small as IDs down to 0.31″ and of lengths up to 50 feet. The inspection frequencies range from 5 to 25 MHz and probe rotation speeds range up to 1000 RPM. TRUSTIE can be used to look at wall thickness and ID profilometry, as well as well as circumferencial crack and ID profilometry. – OPIT and FRILS: are optical systems designed to provide fast and precise three-dimensional information from a surface. Originally designed to support Ontario Hydro’s nuclear program, these systems have now been applied to non-nuclear systems such as steam turbine blades and cable insulation.
– Winspect: is an advanced data acquisition software package for ultrasonic testing, built on Windows. It can control the scanning rig, collect the data, and simultaneously control auxiliary instrumentation. Data and images can be transferred directly to other software packages for analysis and reporting. It can be used with existing hardware–software support is available for a broad range of acquisition and control equipment. It also has signal processing routines, such as data averaging, digital filtering, and fast fourier transforms. It is available from
UTEX Scientific Instruments, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
1-800-828-0360 www.utex.com
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• Fall Protection Engineering
OHT’s work in fall protection has saved at least 20 lives at Ontario Hydro over the past twelve years. Ontario Hydro experts are leaders in setting standards for fall protection, as well as in the development of fall protection equipment. The comprehensive fall protection centre at OHT offers advanced testing in compliance with the following standards: ANSI Z359.1- 1993, CSA Z259, as well as others from ANSI, CSA, ASTM, CGSB, UL, and UIAA. OHT’s fall protection experts offer a broad variety of testing services, fall protection training, fall protection consulting, and fall protection audits. Contact: Mr. Andrew Sulowski 416-207-6298, sulowski@rd.hydro.on.ca
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• High Current and High Voltage Facilities
OHT’s high current facility is used to test the full range of components from transmission class disconnect switches to small connectors. This includes short circuit power arc or temperature rise testing. This laboratory has been operating for over 25 years and assisting Ontario Hydro and the electrical industry in Canada and the US. OHT’s 200 MVA high current facility is directly supplied by Ontario Hydro’s grid, allowing for stable long-duration tests. Of course, clients are welcome to observe tests, and multi-channel, video and high speed photography recording of all tests are available. For example, the facility has been used by safety clothing manufacturers to test the performance of clothing for use in arc-prone environments. Contact: Dr. John Kuffel, 416-207-6539
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• Civil & Geotechnology Services
As a result of many years of providing expert opinion and applying leading edge technology to Ontario Hydro’s 7000 MW hydroelectric generation system, comprised of 69 generating stations and over 200 dams, as well as its fossil and nuclear facilities, OHT has developed expertise in the following areas:
• Concrete Technology
Durability Studies
Inspection of Concrete Structures, Life Cycle Management
Concrete Repair Projects (Leakage, Surface, Structural)
Development of Specialised Concrete for Specific Applications
Concrete Inspection, QA/QC System Design & Audit
Concrete Repair Materials Formulation & Testing
• Geotechnology
Specialised Drilling for Rock, Concrete or Soil
Drain, Pipe and Tunnel Inspection & Cleaning
Geological & Soils Monitoring & Assessment
Instrumentation of Rock, Concrete & Wood Structures
Risk Assessment
Geographic Information Systems
General Contact:
Mr. C W Dawson, Tel 416-207-6307, Fax 416-234-1511
dawsoncw@rd.hydro.on.ca
Mr L E Milton, Tel 416-207-5405, Fax 416-234-1511
miltonle@rd.hydro.on.ca
– Concrete Durability Studies.
An exposure facility is located at the Kipling Site in Toronto, and provides climatic conditions typical for Southern Ontario. An extensive database, going back over 30 years is available from this facility. Laboratory facilities are also available for testing concretes under a variety of temperature and humidity conditions, as well as providing standard testing services.
– Inspection of Concrete Structures.
Extensive experience in the inspection of concrete structures is available. This would normally go through the steps of visual inspection leading to non-destructive ultrasonic inspection, core drilling of suspect locations and physical testing and evaluation of the cores. Testing would normally cover, adsorption, air content, density, alkali aggregate reactivity, compressive strength and carbonation.
– Specialized Concrete & Grout Repairs
OHT can provide a comprehensive knowledge of repair products and approaches to their application. We can provide mix designs for special applications and small to large scale testing of the mixes in our laboratories prior to application. We also provide construction and repair specifications and can provide application supervision and quality management.
– Specialized Concrete Development.
OHT has been extensively involved in the development and testing of specialty concretes. This has included standards development for fly ash concretes, flowable backfills with custom designed strength characteristics, guidelines for the use of fly ash and bottom ash as structural fills and the development of high density concrete for nuclear waste containment.
– Specialised Drilling Services.
OHT has acquired and developed experience with both computerized and directional drilling technology. This technology has been used in conjunction with wire line saw cutting for stress relief of concrete structures, and investigation of problematic geological structures through the extraction of rock cores (along the axis of a tunnel for example). The technology can also be used for post tensioning cable retrofit, instrumentation installation and piping, sewer, cable installations through rock.
– Drain Inspection & Cleaning.
Considerable experience has been developed in the inspection and cleaning of drains as a result of an ongoing program in Ontario Hydro’s own hydroelectric facilities. OHT owns two sets of high pressure waterjetting equipment and a number of sets of down hole TV camera equipment.
– Geological & Soils Monitoring & Assessments.
OHT has comprehensive capability and equipment for carrying out geotechnical monitoring and assessments, including contamination assessments. This includes a mobile soils assessment rig, as well as rock coring capability. OHT also has experience in the use of instrumentation for monitoring the movement of rock and soil formations, as well as concrete and wood structures. Instrumentation has been widely deployed throughout our hydrelectric system, but especially at our Saunders plant, where problems with AAR are being experienced. OHT also has the capability to carry out hydrogeological investigations as they relate to the suitability of a given location for a structure.
– Risk Assessment.
OHT can also provide complete risk assessment services for a structure. This would include an evaluation of the condition of the structure, an assessment of the magnitudes and probabilities of hazards that may affect and threaten the structure, a complete analysis of the risks associated with those hazards and recomendations of ways in which those risks could be managed.
– Geographic Information Systems.
Ontario Hydro and OHT have considerable experience with the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to utility problems, such as land use planning, infrastructure mapping, natural resource management, route and site selection etc. We are therefore in a position to provide other potential users with advice on the merits of various commercial systems, and optimal infrastructures and applications for GIS.
