Product
Development

UNITROL^® 6000: New product portfolio for Excitation Systems

UNITROL 6000 Static Excitation System

Since many years, UNITROL® is a synonym for high quality Automatic Voltage Regulators (AVR) and Static Excitation Systems (SES) which are offering a high return on investment. Our latest technical development, UNITROL 6000 is a logical continuation of this tradition. It is a very flexible product range based on reusable modules. With single / double channel control configuration (additional back-up controller on request) and a wide selection of thyristor bridge modules, the system can be configured to meet all field data and availability requirements.

UNITROL 6000 full modular control cubicle

The development of this high-end demand technical solution required a lot of efforts and time from our development group. In March 2007 the development and testing phase of the first UNITROL 6000 system was finalized and the first series product, so-called “pilot” unit, was delivered to the client. Following ABB internal development process, the newly developed equipment first has to go through extensive testing. Afterwards, in order to assure highest quality and reliability of the product, the equipment has to demonstrate trouble-free operation over a certain period of time in a pilot installation project. Only then it will be officially released for the market.

In case of UNITROL 6000 the internal testing took more than a year and comprised several stages. First of all, the basic controller test that challenged system functionalities in terms of software (PID controller, limiter functions, power converter control) and new control hardware. Next two stages concerned the system as a whole: integration test with a run on a lowoutput machine (20 kVA) and a consequent run on a high-power test setup (1500 VAC supply, up to 10'000 ADC load). The series of tests were concluded with a successful certification by an external institution (montena emc ag) on Electro Magnetic Compatibility
(EMC test).

RWE Power AG requested the latest technology available for the retrofit of its combined-cycle power plant Gersteinwerk (2 GVA), located in Germany. As for the same plant ABB MV Drives delivered the AC 800PEC-based Static Frequency Converter for gas turbine starting, the client was looking for an excitation solution using the same control platform for the plant’s steam turbine (400 MVA). UNITROL 6000 concept meets all these requirements. The pilot unit represents a dual channel Static Excitation System, with two UNL 14300 Power Converters and an Excitation Control Terminal. The representatives of Gersteinwerk power plant were very satisfied with the results of the factory acceptance test. End of April after a quick and trouble-free commissioning the system went into commercial operation. The official product launch of UNITROL 6000 is scheduled for July the 3rd in Turgi, Switzerland.