Weddell Power Station
A CommTel Case Study

The New Weddell Power Station is a $126.6 million dollar project that will add 30% capacity to Darwin and Palmerston’s power supply and provide back up supply for Katherine if needed. CommTel Network Solutions was involved in the
design, supply and integration of the communications network.

Project Background
Power and Water Corporation is the Northern Territory’s premier provider of electricity, water and sewerage services, and is one of the largest businesses in the Northern Territory.


To accommodate the growing electricity demand in the Darwin/Katherine region, Power and Water Corporation constructed the Weddell Power Station. The power station is located at the existing Weddell substation site and will meet the increasing demand for electricity, driven by the region’s economic and population growth.

The Weddell Power Station is the largest electricity generation project in the Northern Territory in the last 20 years and, with a budget of more than $120 million, it is their largest project to date. Using gas fuel with highly efficient turbines, the new power station generates only half the amount of greenhouse emissions generated by standard coal-fired power stations.

The Challenges
CommTel were commissioned to design and integrate the communications network for the new Weddell Power Station. The purpose of this communications network is to carry critical protection signaling, while also delivering voice and data services between various sites. These communication services are critical to the safe operation of the power station and so demand a highly available network infrastructure. To achieve the required level of resiliency and network availability, a fully redundant network architecture was required, including path redundancy to each site.

CommTel faced several major challenges when designing the network. Firstly, the existing fibre optic cable network did not provide path redundancy. This path redundancy was essential, however it was not possible to install additional optical fibre cables due to the environmental impact and prohibitive overall cost.

The optical cable infrastructure offered further challenges, as a portion of this was comprised only of multi-mode fibre. The overall communications solution needed to operate within the physical constraints imposed by the existing optical cable infrastructure. Other challenges included the implementation of a network-wide management system, suitable for managing
both the existing and new communications infrastructure, in a true multivendor environment.

Innovative Solutions
CommTel worked closely with Power and Water Corporation to develop a complete end-to-end solution, meeting the network resiliency and availability requirements. Due to the critical nature of the services being delivered and the extremely low latency requirements, the solution was developed using both PDH and SDH technologies

To deliver the access level PDH services, Nokia Siemens Networks’ Dynanet equipment was selected because of its superb reliability and proven performance in Power and Water Corporation’s operating environment. The
PDH equipment provides 2Mbits multiplexing, supported by a full suite of channel cards, ranging from 19.2kbps to nx64kbps.


The SDH transport layer was implemented using Ericsson’s OMS1240 Add-Drop multiplexer. The OMS1240 hardware offers very high availability, with its full 1+1 hardware redundancy.

The OMS1240 optical interface supports a wide variety of SFP’s, allowing a broad range of optical spans to be achieved with a minimum number of spares. In addition, coloured wavelength SFPs are also supported, allowing for easy future integration with xWDM systems. The OMS1240 supports capacities upto 2.5Gbps, and with future integration into a xWDM system, substantially greater bandwidths can be supported. which enables single mode SFPs to transport signals over
multi-mode fibre.


The communications network was a diverse one, including equipment from Nokia Siemens Networks, Ericsson, Ceragon and MRV. In order to manage this diverse range of communications equipment, CommTel selected CNMS to provide a single view of the entire network. CNMS is based on an open platform and supports a range of plug-ins to manage equipment from various vendors. It aggregates all alarm and performance parameters from each network element, offering a single point for network management and analysis.

CommTel and Power and Water Corporation worked together to finalise the overall system design. CommTel’s scope of works included the detailed design and overall system documentation.


The equipment was sourced directly from each vendor and consolidated at our Tullamarine headquarters for full system integration and testing. With the broad spectrum of equipment supplied for this project, Network Management System integration and testing was a key element in ensuring the overall project success.

CommTel and Power and Water Corporation worked very closely during the implementation phase to optimise the implementation schedule. The project was delivered on time and on budget. Staff from Power and Water Corporation were trained in the operations and maintenance of the communications equipment and the overall network architecture. In support of the network operations staff, CommTel’s ServiceDesk is available to assist with any network related issues.

With this project, CommTel has demonstrated its ability to provide an end-to-end solution, with a multi-vendor and multi-technology approach. We have selected the best-ofbreed products from vendors

 

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About CommTel

CommTel Network Solutions Pty Ltd is an Australian owned, locally based, Value Added Reseller specialising in the provision of Industrial and Carrier grade communications systems and related technical services.

Unlike most other communications systems suppliers who primarily focus on the Carrier sector, CommTel’s core focus is providing exceptional quality products and services to the non-Carrier market focusing on the dedicated/industrial network sector (i.e. power utilities, oil & gas, transport, mining etc). This strategy has enabled CommTel to develop a large base of small to medium sized customers that offer regular, low risk and reliable business.

Since is inception in 1998, CommTel has continued to grow, develop its product range and add to its customer base. Today, CommTel is considered by the industry, as the leading supplier of communications systems and equipment in its field, which in itself is proof of customer satisfaction and confidence in CommTel’s capabilities.

 

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