HIMOINSA has supplied 2MW of emergency power to the Bailén tunnel, which has been built beneath Madrid's iconic Plaza de España. A new tunnel that has transformed the architecture of the neighbourhood, allowing citizens and pedestrians to enjoy spacious new green areas that provide the city centre with a new lung.
This new infrastructure required the installation of two HBW 1145 T5 parallel generator sets that synchronise and supply the medium voltage transformer, providing 2500 kVA emergency power to activate the tunnel's lighting, smoke extraction and fire extinguishing systems in the event of a grid outage.
This back-up power system has been designed to allow the gensets to supply a step-up transformer with the distance between the generator room and the grid supply point is approximately 1 km.
The generator sets do not have a standard operating mode, but rather have been configured to start with the excitation disabled, a mode that satisfies the need for a 'soft start'. This so-called Close Before Excitation (CBE) feature ensures that the generator sets are ready to take over the load at a moment's notice. As soon as the excitation is activated, the generator sets will match the voltage and frequency and then run in a synchronised system. The AGC governors close the excitation after a time delay that can be programmed.
Given its location in an urban area, one of the main requirements of the project was to guarantee high levels of soundproofing. To do so, a soundproofed area was built to house the generator sets, which, together with the already excellent sound levels of the HIMOINSA equipment, provided total sound attenuation.
To facilitate the installation of the generator sets, a part was designed to connect the engine's two exhaust outlets to the residential silencer.
