Upgradation of Electrical Equipment Testing Facility for Power Supply System of Research Reactor

Electrical power supply system (EPSS) is playing a vital role in operation of Reactor since inception. Various testing, maintenance and inventory management systems were implemented and upgraded to reduce the down time of EPSS. Technological development has made a huge impact on various electrical component and system. Now the system is getting equipped with advance and more featureful components. There are around 400 protection relays for variety of equipment at Dhruva, Cirus and Research Reactor facilities. These Electromechanical (EM) relays need to be tested and calibrated periodically. Previous facility for testing and calibration of the relays was inadequate. An advance Electrical Test Laboratory was required for testing of various relays used in EPSS. As previous testing facility was not capable to cater the new numerical relays and testing of other advance system like PLC which are being already used in plant. Various power sources are also required to cover wide spectrum of auxiliary supply for testing of different equipment ( Design Manual Power Supply and Distribution System of Dhruva Riv-3, 2019.). Commissioning of new Electrical Test Laboratory has significantly contributed in the improvement of overall system reliability by strengthening the testing program. There are several other advantages of well-equipped lab like parallel testing, fast operation, systematic arrangement, testing capability of PLC etc. which could be helpful in efficient testing of plant equipment. Electrical Test Laboratory performs testing of protection relays, timer, counter & PLC system etc. Test report generation, data storage and display, operator friendly arrangements are additional features in test bench layout of Electrical Test Laboratory. Test bench includes AC/DC power supply, Transformers, Paperless Recorder (PLR), panel mounted back plain of PLC, Bench top Digital Multimeter, Panel mounted AC/DC Multi Data Meter (MDM), barcode generator and reader, appropriate display unit and essential flexible arrangement (Banana Terminal: BT) for tapping and using available instrument from testing. Incorporation of training program for relay testing, PLC programming & other system has become easy and effective due to presence of such facility in the plant premises. Storage facility to store spares and under testing equipment is also available ( Design document of New electrical Testing lab of Dhruva 202). In this paper detailed features, operational philosophy & advantages of electrical testing laboratory was described and also shared the challenges faced during upgradation.