Distributed control system upgrade for units 7&8 350MW coal-fired generating units in Lamma Power Station

The Hongkong Electric Co., Ltd. (HK Electric) is one of the longest-established power companies in the world supplying electricity mainly to Hong Kong Island since incorporated in 1889. Hong Kong is not only an international city but a densely populated area featuring numerous high rise buildings where commercial and financial activities keep operating almost round the clock. Even a short interruption of electricity supply could inevitably lead to a significant impact to the local communities. Recognizing the importance of electricity supply, HK Electric endeavors to upkeep its transmission, distribution, and generation facilities and manages to achieve the supply reliability rating as high as 99.999% or above since 1997. As part of plant life extension exercise, HK Electric is undergoing the control system upgrade on two of its existing 350MW coal fired generating units in Lamma Power Station. While no one denies the advantages of upgrading the plant control system to the state-of-art, it can certainly be a painstaking and complex process due to the extensive scope of hardware and software work involved within a very limited outage window. This paper describes the design consideration, project and work planning in order to overcome the challenges and difficulties anticipated.