12.09.13
Huge changes to Network Rail’s electrical control infrastructure
Telent has been awarded a £27m contract to replace Network Rail’s electrical control systems with a national Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.
The contract will bring 16 separate systems together and involve moving staff from 13 control rooms to eight of the proposed 12 new rail operating centres. The SCADA system will be VDU-based and easier to maintain, allowing enhanced monitoring of electric usage and automatic responses to circuit-breaker trippings.
Telent will train approximately 310 staff, move 750 remote terminal units (RTUs) and install 250 new RTUs. The contract is forecast to last until 2017 and is set to increase efficiency for Network Rail, improving its response to operating incidents.
Chris Rowley, head of operations development at Network Rail, said: “The move to one national system for electrical control represents one of the biggest changes to the way we operate the electrified network.
“It will provide a firm foundation on which to expand our electrified network, increasing reliability and improving the efficiency of how we use our power.”
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