Accessory Package for a 350 MW Solar Collector Circuit

Client Background

An EPC contractor building a 350 MW utility solar project needed the accessory package for a 35 kV collector system spanning 41 inverter stations and a central collector substation.

Project Challenge

Deliver several hundred terminations and joints to a construction programme with crews who were cabling specialists rather than MV jointing specialists, and do it without a container of accessories sitting on a dusty site for six months.

Customer Pain Points

• A cable schedule that generated 14 different accessory part numbers
• Site crews with limited MV jointing experience making several hundred identical terminations
• Remote location where a missing component means a lost day
• Collector voltage at 35 kV requiring the higher permittivity stress control grade

Our Solution

We took off the accessory requirement directly from the collector single line and cable schedule and consolidated 14 part numbers into 5 by standardising on the larger conductor band where two bands were adjacent. C35 kits carried the C102-35 stress control grade. A written method statement was supplied for inclusion in the site RAMS pack.

Manufacturing Process

Kits packed to the consolidated bill of materials with the higher permittivity C102-35 stress control layer and C106 tri layer tube in the joint kits for the 35 kV insulation build.

Supply Chain Coordination

Five phased deliveries aligned to the civil and cabling programme. Each delivery covered the stations scheduled for the following six weeks plus a defined float.

Quality Control

Per lot testing in our own laboratory. Two sample terminations built and inspected before the first delivery released.

Final Result

The first block of terminations was supported live over WhatsApp video with our engineers watching the crew work. After that block the crew worked unsupported. No termination was rebuilt during the programme.

Customer Benefit

Five part numbers instead of fourteen, no accessories sitting in a container, and a crew that became competent on the first block rather than the fifth.