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Renovation of Rijssen high voltage substation

TenneT needs to prepare more than 145 existing high voltage substations for the future. The substations are outdated and are not set up the same way throughout, which is why today they always require custom work.

The replacement and upgrade of so many high voltage substations over a period of 10 years is a tremendous challenge. This demands innovative solutions. 

Standardisation 

TenneT will be making the layout of the high voltage substations identical whenever possible: standardisation. Because more will be prefabricated in the plant, replacing the substations will be much faster. This means that there will be much less of a need to work at the substations themselves. This is safer, takes less time and limits any inconvenience. Furthermore, the high voltage substations will be digitalised, and as a result maintenance can more often be performed remotely. 

What we are going to do

Starting on 28 September, Strukton, one of the contractors replacing the substations, will start working in Rijssen. The ‘fuse boxes’ (in technical terms the ‘fields’) that can be seen outside at the site will be fully replaced. The new fields are prefabricated in the plant and transported in their entirety to the site. After this, they only need to be installed. This is a new approach, specially developed to replace a large number of high voltage substations over a limited period of time. A major additional benefit is that inconvenience to the surrounding community is much reduced. The construction period is shorter because the fields are manufactured in the plant in advance.

Benefits after replacement

The new installations will be digitalised from the outset, so that the high voltage substations can be monitored better, thus avoiding unexpected failures. It will also be easier to schedule maintenance, and malfunctions, generally, can be resolved remotely.