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130km Fiber Optic Ploughing and Splicing – Wolverine to Bankend
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SaskPower started installing fiber optics ~20 years before this project, prioritizing connecting as many switching stations as possible. In an effort to maintain secure, 99.99% reliable networks, we were now adding geographic redundancy.
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Fiber Optic Relocation for Highway Twinning
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Ministry of Highways was twinning the highway from Saskatoon to Clavet, necessitating the relocation of a SaskPower fiber optic cable. To minimize disruption, the repair was planned for the weekend, with two splicing crews working simultaneously.
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Transformer Top Rescue SOP Development
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Could we rescue a person injured while working on top of a transformer? As members of the OH&S committee we were tasked with 1) Identifying viable rescue solutions 2) Proving their effectiveness for SaskPower 3) Presenting our findings at Safety…
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Root Cause Fix for Beckwith AVR Failures Caused by GPR
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Approximately once a year, four regulators north of Meadow Lake experienced failures in the Beckwith automatic voltage regulator (AVR). Due to the extremely sandy soil, O&M staff suspected that these failures were caused by Ground Potential Rise (GPR) affecting the…
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Delta Star Mobile Transformer SCADA
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SaskPower purchased a mobile 138kV substation, which included a D20MX RTU communicating with the control center via serial data encapsulated in IP using a Cisco IR809 cell modem. This was the first deployment of this setup. I worked alongside specialists…
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LEDR Microwave Radio Replacement for Customer Co-Gen
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4RF Aprisa XE radios were purchased to replace two obsolete LEDR radio links used to protect Independent Power Producer (IPP) sites at Kerrobert and Loreburn. The protection scheme involved both direct tripping and comm-loss tripping functions.
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Replacement of Obsolete M-series RTU and failed SER with Next Gen SCADA
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The project scope included installing the entire fiber optic network, IRIG-B timing, and replacing the GE M-Series RTU, which had approximately 150 controls, indications, alarms, SERs, and 18 analog measurements. This was replaced with a GE D400 HMI equipped with…
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Prototype Development of SaskPower Distribution SCADA
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Traditionally SaskPower’s substations were not connected to a centralized grid control center, but that was rapidly changing with SmartGrid. The goal of the project was to develop a scalable configuration template for hundreds of substations.
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First Deployment of SaskPower Next Gen SCADA
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The GE D400 was replacing the obsolete GE D20 remote terminal unit (RTU), which had served as the reliable SCADA head unit at SaskPower for decades. This pilot project aimed to test a prototype using a D20RIO (Remote I/O) that…
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Sub-Arctic Terrestrial Fiber Optics Solution for Canadian Shield
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Projects in the Sub-Arctic Canadian Shield, accessible only by airplane and barge, are always challenging—especially when you can’t plough fiber into solid rock, and aging overhead structures can’t support it either. SaskPower implemented an innovative solution by laying fiber with…