Vale

The Copper Cliff No. 4 Substation is Vale’s flagship substation in Sudbury, Ontario, providing feed to several Vale sites in the Copper Cliff area. The substation includes 2-230 kV incoming lines that feed 2-180 MVA transformers that in turn feed 18 outgoing 69 kV feeders. The substation is challenged in its ability to provide electrical power due to the aging electrical and structural infrastructure. As well, there will be an increased demand on the substation in the future due to Vale’s new projects coming on-line (i.e, atmospheric emission reduction in the smelter complex, the challenging ore recovery processes in Clarabelle Mill, and the underground mine expansions for Creighton Mine and Copper Cliff Mine). All these new projects will add a projected load of ~97 MVA. The age and growing electrical demand from the operations means that the Copper Cliff #4 Substation must be replaced with a new and higher capacity system. BESTECH completed the FEL3 study and all detailed engineering for the successful update.

Road relocations and trestle removal
Oxygen and nitrogen line relocation
Noise attenuation design and build of a 10 m wall on two sides of the substation
Geotechnical studies and surveys
Civil/structural engineering
All concrete foundations o H-Frame structures and large gantry structure to support the overhead 230 kV and 69 kV bus o Relocation of 18-69 kV pole lines

Demolition of the existing substation, including:

Removal of all breakers, transformers, and disconnects o Demolition of the existing steel structure, foundations and the underground concrete utilidor
New protective device schemes including wiring, schematics and relay programming
All tender documents for major equipment, including an electrical house, breakers, switches and instrument transformers including bid evaluations and shop drawing reviews.
Tx line design for all 230kV and 69kV circuits

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