Geotech Srl is an engineering company founded in 1998 in Morbegno that provides public and private operators with technical consulting and strategic support in the energy sector. In 2006, thanks to a multidisciplinary team, Geotech acquired important orders for industrial realities on the national territory and beyond in the electrical infrastructure sector. Today Geotech has about 40 collaborators including electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, geologists and specialized operators who are involved in the development of projects for High and Medium Voltage plants, power lines and primary substations but also in the design and development of large photovoltaic plants, wind farms, hydroelectric plants. In addition to the electrical, mechanical and civil design phase, Geotech offers environmental and geological analysis services and also offers support in obtaining permits and construction supervision. "We are a multidisciplinary team that operates on different fronts in the design of High and Medium Voltage power lines, HV stations, HV/MV primary cabins but also primary and secondary distribution networks in important industrial complexes and data centers," explains Federico Rivolta, electrical project engineer in the company since 2010. "I am in charge of following the electrical design part of both overhead and underground power lines and HV/MV systems as well as distribution networks."
Geotech and Thytronic are collaborating on an important project in the industrial field. "A 'major multinational company, a leader in the production of semiconductors, needs to expand its plant with a new plant and increase its power from 10 to 30 megawatts. This also implies a change to the layout of the High Voltage connection network and the internal Medium Voltage distribution network," explains Rivolta. The project includes the construction of a new High Voltage and Medium Voltage substation and a new Medium Voltage distribution network to be connected and interfaced with the distribution network of the existing plant in operation. Geotech is handling the design of the new substation, the design of the distribution system and the interface with the existing plant.
"As for the medium-voltage part, it is a project with significant complexity, given mainly by the number of cells present, about 70 between old and new," says the engineer. "From this complexity came the need to develop a SCADA protection, control and monitoring system through detailed design. The starting situation required in-depth study and analysis, hence the search for support from a specialist in protection systems."
"We had already been familiar with Thytronic technologies," says Rivolta, "but had never had the need for such specific support as in this case."
Thytronic, for this important project is developing the complete engineering study of the protection system: definition of the protection system, calculation of short-circuit currents, definition of CTs and VTs, connection diagrams of the IEDs, CTs and VTs for the purpose of logical selectivity, and coordination study of the IEDs. In addition, Thytronic will provide the entire protection system with multifunction IEDs from the new X-MORE platform. For the monitoring and control system, Thytronic will provide the SCADA automation system including the engineering and activation part. Thytronic will also take care of the commissioning of the protection system.
"Having a single point of contact for both the protection system and the control and monitoring system is a great advantage of Thytronic." Affirms Federico Rivolta. "Even though they are two separate systems, these have to interact. Having a single supplier for both ensures total compatibility and interoperability between the protections and SCADA."
"Conducting the selectivity studies in-house is also a very important element. Entrusting the study part to a protection specialist as well as a manufacturer ensures an optimal level of accuracy and precision of the analysis."
Thytronic puts the customer at the center, striving to ensure optimal support for all needs.
"The support we have received, both commercially and technically from Antonio Colnaghi has been of the highest level." Confirms Rivolta. "despite the many changes that the end customer requested and the complexity of the supply, we found in Thytronic maximum availability and technical expertise. Definitely it is of the most important aspects that mark our collaboration."
The partnership between Geotech and Thytronic made it possible to win the order and direct the choice toward the network architecture proposed by Geotech with Thytronic's SCADA protection and automation system. In addition to the construction of the new plant, Thytronic will also support ancillary activities during the transitional phases of plant construction.
