New Gold – Rainy River Mine Commissioning

Project Summary

Our team provided complete commissioning and start-up services for the 230 kV switching station, main substation, and site-wide electrical distribution system. This included testing of high-voltage equipment, medium-voltage switchgear, protection and control systems, communication infrastructure, and utility telemetry to ensure safe and reliable operation. The scope of work included:

• Provided complete commissioning and start‐up services for the New Gold Rainy River Gold Mine 230kV switching station, main substation, and site wide electrical distribution.
• Performed testing and commissioning on all the 230kV electrical equipment including four (4) SF6 circuit breakers, two (2) 230kV ‐ 13.8kV power transformers, six (6) capacitive voltage transformers, one (1) SF6 station service transformer, fifteen (15) 230kV lightning arrestors, and all associated bus sections.
• Performed testing and commissioning on the main 13.8kV substation and site wide medium voltage substation switchgear.
• Performed point to point verification of all the DC control circuitry and AC instrument transformer secondary circuits.
• Performed testing and commissioning on all the protection and control devices throughout the site including but not limited to the following devices: SEL‐311Ls, SEL‐751s, SEL 2407s, SEL‐3530s, GE‐ML300s, GE‐L90s, GE‐T60s, GE‐B30s, GE‐850s, TAPCON 240s, and Startco SE‐330s.
• Provided setup, testing, and verification of all remote communication channels.
• Performed testing of the line differential protection from the switching station to the main substation via two satellite linked relay test sets.
• Provided testing and verification of all the IESO telemetry points including final end‐end testing with the IESO control room.
• Provided testing and verification of the Bell leased line with Hydro One and the associated ABB NSD teleprotection trip signals.
• Provided site wide very low frequency high potential testing on all the medium voltage cables.
• Performed ground grid resistance testing utilizing the fall of potential method outlined in IEEE std. 81
• Performed battery bank acceptance testing utilizing the IEEE std. 1181 time adjusted method.