IEC provided Professional Design Services support for the High Voltage Operational Assessment of the UC Davis (UCD) campus. The project scope involved the conversion of the 60kV ring bus substation into a 115kV substation with little or no downtime to the university campus. IEC provided field evaluation of the 115kV equipment in storage and performed an assessment of any required restoration. Our engineers carried out an evaluation of the fault current and protection scheme and designed engineering modification drawings and documents. IEC prepared a switching sequence plan in conjunction with standard UCD switching procedures and developed a construction package and contractor instructions for the required substation modifications.

IEC also coordinated with UCD, PG&E, and WAPA to develop an energization plan, submitted a draft design package for PG&E review, negotiated with PG&E on protection requirements, and confirmed relay settings. IEC was also retained to provide onsite technical assistance to UC Davis throughout the conversion process. The primary goal of the conversion project was to minimize outage time to the campus’s five main feeders as the power transformers and supporting equipment were converted to operate at the new higher voltage. As the conversion required close coordination, IEC facilitated the detailed and formal communication between the vendors, PG&E, and all of the UC Davis departments to support the crucial sequence of work, the very tight outage schedule, and safe re-energization of each transformer. The outage and conversion were completed with no issues and all equipment was back online with no interruptions to the University.