Case Study: Caribbean Utilities Company thwarts island-wide outages with SEL substation automation

Caribbean Utility Thwarts Island-wide Power Outages Brain Surgery Performed on Live Substation

Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd. (CUC) needed to prevent serious island-wide outages as aging bay controllers in three gas-insulated substations began failing, especially at the critical North Sound Substation that carries most of Grand Cayman’s power. The obsolete equipment was no longer supported by the manufacturer, and CUC had to keep electricity reliable for a growing island economy with no neighboring grid for backup.

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) proposed a custom retrofit using SEL-2240 Axion modules, SEL-451 protection, automation, and bay control systems, and protective relays, while keeping the GIS hardware in service. SEL engineers tested the system in a lab, then installed it in stages over nine months without shutting down the substation. The result was a faster, smarter control platform that can detect disturbances in as little as a millisecond, improve reliability, and serve as the model for replacing the other two substations’ controllers.

Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd.

Sacha Tibbetts

Vice President of Customer Service and Technology