We bring coordinated, multi-discipline engineering to utility-scale renewable energy projects, EPC contractors, and grid operators across Australia’s NEM, US ISOs, and the UK’s National Grid ESO since 2012.
AEMO · NEM · ERCOT · PJM · National Grid ESO · Licensed Engineers · Melbourne HQ
Year Company Founded
Engineering Service Lines
Continents Australia, North America, UK
AEMO·NEMERCOT·PJM
UK GridCoverage
Software Platforms We Use
The protection relay settings had been calculated correctly. The SCADA interface had been specified in the connection agreement. The FAT reports for both systems had passed. Three separate engineering firms, three separate scopes, three separate document control systems. Nobody had verified that the relay trip signals matched the SCADA configuration. Nobody had confirmed the SCADA telemetry met the updated NSP requirements issued four months before energisation. Energisation day. The NSP representative asked for the current SCADA configuration document. The version on file was nine months old. The plant did not energise. Two weeks of resolution work. A COD that slipped past the quarter end. A PPA that required an extension negotiation. Four different firms issuing four different explanations for who was responsible for the gap. This failure mode is not unusual. It is the most common cause of commissioning delays in utility-scale renewable energy projects — not technical errors within individual disciplines, but coordination gaps between disciplines. The protection engineer delivered their scope. The SCADA integrator delivered their scope. The commissioning team arrived with a checklist based on the original specifications. Nobody owned the interface between all three.
Since 2012, our engineers have commissioned solar farms, wind projects, BESS installations, and hybrid plants across Australia's National Electricity Market, across US ISOs under FERC and NERC jurisdiction, and in the United Kingdom under National Grid ESO. The coordination problem appears in every market. The solution is the same: engineering disciplines that communicate with each other before energisation day, not after.
Grid Engineering Group was founded in Melbourne in 2012 by Marcus Webb, PE, CPEng, a power systems engineer with commissioning and protection experience across Australia, North America, and the UK. The company was built around one principle: renewable project failures often result from coordination gaps between disciplines rather than individual engineering errors. Today, Grid Engineering Group delivers commissioning, protection, SCADA, EPC support, HV testing, grid modernisation, power systems integration, asset performance, and digital grid engineering across three continents. Our sister firm, American Power Engineers, provides connection advisory, GPS compliance, and regulatory engineering, covering the project lifecycle from AEMO connection enquiry through long-term asset performance.
Every service Grid Engineering Group provides is connected to every other service we provide. A commissioning engineer who has reviewed the relay settings. A relay engineer who understands the SCADA interface. A field team carrying both calibrated instruments and the engineering judgment to resolve findings on site — without mobilising three separate firms. That connection is structural, not incidental.
Commissioning verifies that a renewable energy plant operates as designed before grid connection and commercial operations. Our systematic testing covers protection relays, SCADA, inverter controls, reactive power control, and plant management against registered connection parameters, IEEE and IEC standards, and NSP requirements. Our scope includes FAT, SAT, loop checks, functional testing, relay testing, SCADA verification, active and reactive power response, fault ride-through compliance, and energisation support through synchronisation and commercial operation. In Australia’s NEM, we coordinate with AEMO and NSPs for compliance evidence. We also support commissioning requirements across ERCOT, PJM, CAISO, MISO, and UK National Grid ESO and DNO processes.
IEEE C37 · IEC 60255 · IEC 61850 · AEMO GPS · NERC PRC · Grid Code GB · FAT · SAT
Protection relay engineering ensures the correct protective devices operate in sequence to isolate power system faults while minimising impact on healthy equipment. Our services cover protection philosophy, relay selection, settings calculations, time-current coordination, directional element coordination, commissioning, testing, and calibration for renewable generation, substations, and utility networks. For inverter-based resources, we coordinate inverter protection, plant relays, and utility network protection, including NERC PRC-029-1 ride-through requirements and AEMO GPS standards. We work with SEL, ABB, Siemens SIPROTEC, GE UR, and Schneider Electric MiCOM platforms. Every relay settings file undergoes documented check calculations before implementation.
SEL · ABB · Siemens SIPROTEC · GE UR · IEEE C37.112 · NERC PRC-029-1 · AEMO GPS S5.2
SCADA and control systems integration connects renewable energy plant inverters, battery management systems, reactive power controls, and plant-level controls into a coordinated, compliant architecture linked to the NSP’s monitoring and control infrastructure. Our scope covers SCADA design, telemetry configuration, communication protocols, data point mapping, and control response requirements across AEMO, ERCOT, PJM, MISO, and UK Grid Code environments. We work with Ignition SCADA, GE iFIX, Wonderware (AVEVA), OSIsoft PI, DNP3, IEC 61850, and Modbus. For digital substations, we develop SSD, SCD, and IED configuration files in coordination with relay manufacturers and utilities, supporting reliable plant control, monitoring, and grid integration.
AEMO SCADA · IEC 61850 · DNP3 · ICCP · Ignition SCADA · OSIsoft PI · NERC CIP
EPC contractors on utility-scale renewable projects may require specialist support in protection relay engineering, SCADA integration, HV commissioning, and grid code compliance. These gaps can lead to commissioning delays, failed SCADA submissions, and repeated protection testing. Grid Engineering Group provides specialist engineers within EPC project teams, working under existing delivery, QA/QC, and document control systems. Our support includes protection engineer secondment for relay settings, FAT/SAT witnessing, and commissioning procedures; SCADA engineering for interface design and NSP submissions; HV testing for relay, insulation, and power quality testing; and commissioning engineering for pre-commissioning checks, energisation support, and performance testing across Australia, the US, and UK.
Specialist Secondment · FAT/SAT Witnessing · Protection Engineering · SCADA Support · HV Testing
High-voltage testing confirms the electrical integrity of renewable energy plants before connection to live transmission or distribution networks. Our field testing covers insulation resistance, high-voltage withstand, protection relay functional and secondary injection testing, power quality measurement, CT saturation and ratio verification, transformer turns ratio and winding resistance testing, and staged energisation procedures. We use OMICRON CMC, Megger, AEMC, and Fluke testing equipment meeting applicable calibration requirements and relevant IEC, IEEE, Australian, and US standards. All testing is conducted under formal hold and witness point procedures, with documented test records and calibration certificates provided. This supports safe energisation, reliable protection operation, and compliant project commissioning.
OMICRON CMC · Megger · AEMC · IEC 60060 · IEEE 43 · IEEE 519-2022 · Insulation Testing · Power Quality
Grid modernisation upgrades aging transmission and distribution infrastructure to support inverter-based generation, bidirectional power flows, and real-time monitoring and control. Grid Engineering Group provides engineering support for protection system modernisation, digital substation implementation, and SCADA system replacement. Our scope includes replacing legacy relays with digital protection IEDs, updating settings for changed network conditions, redesigning protection schemes for bidirectional flows, IEC 61850 architecture, SSD/SCD development, merging unit selection, process bus implementation, SCADA migration, data historian integration, and OT cybersecurity reviews. For Australia’s NEM, our engineering considers increasing IBR penetration and system strength changes, ensuring modernised protection schemes and relay settings reflect network conditions.
IEC 61850 · Digital Substations · OT Cybersecurity · NERC CIP · AEMO SCADA · Asset Modernisation
Power systems integration addresses the challenges of connecting new technologies to existing networks, particularly inverter-based resources (IBR) such as solar PV, wind, and BESS. Our integration engineering scope covers IBR integration studies, BESS co-location integration, microgrid formation engineering, and large load integration for data centers, hydrogen electrolysers, and mining facilities. We assess stability, power quality, voltage, protection, control coordination, islanding, and network impacts using current system data. Our engineers use DIgSILENT PowerFactory for RMS stability studies, PSCAD/EMTDC for EMT and harmonic analysis, ETAP for industrial integration, and PSS/E for transmission-level assessments. This ensures integration studies accurately reflect actual network conditions.
DIgSILENT · PSCAD · PSS/E · ETAP · IBR Integration · BESS · Microgrid · Large Load
Asset performance engineering helps renewable energy assets maintain reliable operation and projected energy yield throughout their 25 to 35 year design life. Our scope covers performance monitoring, protection system maintenance, root cause analysis, and modification engineering. We compare plant performance against energy yield models, investigate inverter trips, reactive power issues, and protection operations, and develop corrective engineering actions. We support NERC PRC-005 requirements in North America and relevant Australian maintenance obligations. For operating portfolios, we apply consistent methodologies across multiple sites while addressing each grid market’s technical requirements, helping asset owners identify recurring issues and prevent repeated performance problems.
NERC PRC-005 · AS 2067 · Performance Monitoring · Root Cause Analysis · Asset Life Extension
Digital grid engineering integrates advanced metering, digital substations, energy management systems, OT cybersecurity, and AI-assisted monitoring into modern power networks. Our scope covers AMI integration, meter data management, communication network design, EMS and SCADA integration, demand response, real-time pricing, OT network segmentation, and digital twin development. We support cybersecurity compliance with NERC CIP requirements in North America and Australian critical infrastructure guidelines. Our engineers combine power system and digital architecture expertise to design secure, practical solutions for real-time grid operations. This integrated approach helps asset owners modernise infrastructure without creating operational restrictions or disconnects between IT, OT, and power system engineering requirements.
AMI · EMS · OT Cybersecurity · NERC CIP · Digital Twin · AEMO SCADA · IEC 62351
Solar, wind, BESS, and hybrid developers who need commissioning engineering, protection relay design, and SCADA integration from FAT through to commercial operations — delivered by a group that is accountable for the interfaces between disciplines, not just the individual scopes. We work alongside your EPC contractor or as your direct engineering partner where you are managing construction yourself.
EPC firms who need specialist engineering depth beyond their in-house capability — protection relay engineers who can calculate settings for SEL and ABB hardware, SCADA engineers who know the AEMO interface requirements, commissioning engineers who have done this on a 200MW solar farm before. We provide specialist resources under your project delivery framework without the overhead of a full engineering firm engagement.
Transmission network service providers (TNSPs), distribution network service providers (DNSPs), and US utilities that need protection system modernisation, digital substation engineering, SCADA replacement, and grid modernisation engineering from a team that works to utility-grade standards — not to a residential or commercial electrical standard applied at utility voltage.
BESS project owners who need commissioning engineering that covers the BESS-specific requirements: battery management system integration with the plant controller, SCADA interface for the market ancillary service provider registration, protection relay settings for a resource with inverter-limited fault current, and performance testing against the connection agreement registered parameters for frequency response and reactive power.
IPPs operating renewable generation assets in Australia, North America, and the UK who need protection relay maintenance, SCADA upgrades, asset performance monitoring, and modification engineering throughout the asset's operating life. We provide the engineering continuity that ensures the asset performs at its designed capability from commissioning through to asset life extension studies at year 25.
Hyperscale and enterprise data center operators, hydrogen production developers, and large industrial loads connecting to transmission or distribution networks who need HV testing, protection relay engineering, and SCADA integration to meet NSP technical acceptance requirements. Large load connections carry protection engineering requirements that differ from generation connections we understand the distinction and apply it correctly.
Every service Grid Engineering Group provides is connected to every other service we provide. A commissioning engineer who has reviewed the relay settings. A relay engineer who understands the SCADA interface. A field team carrying both calibrated instruments and the engineering judgment to resolve findings on site — without mobilising three separate firms. That connection is structural, not incidental.
We use the same platforms that utility engineers, ISO study teams, and NSP technical review teams use so our deliverables are accepted on first submission, our models do not need reformatting, and our test records are issued in the format that commissioning hold point procedures require.
Load flow, stability, protection coordination, harmonic analysis
NEM · ERCOT · PJM · Grid Code GB
EMT analysis, IBR model validation and harmonic resonance.
AEMO SSIA · CAISO EMT · WECC
Transmission load flow, dynamic stability, and ISO submissions
Industrial power studies, arc flash, relay coordination, and grounding.
IEEE 1584-2018 · NFPA 70E · OSHA
Protection relay testing, secondary injection, and FAT/SAT procedures.
IEC 60255 · IEEE C37 · AEMO · NERC PRC
Relay settings, AcSELerator, and RTAC programming.
SEL-300 · 400 · 700 Series Hardware
SCADA development, OPC-UA integration, and HMI design.
Inductive Automation · IEC 61850 Ready
Schematic design, wiring diagrams, and protection drawings.
IEC / IEEE Drawing Standards
Infrastructure design, transmission line design, and 3D substation.
Bentley · Utility Standard Platform
Short circuit, arc flash, and relay coordination for industrial systems.
NFPA 70E · IEEE 1584 · IEC 60909
Arc flash hazard analysis, incident energy, and PPE categorisation.
IEEE 1584-2018 · NFPA 70E-2024
Distribution network analysis, DER integration, and power quality.
Distribution Connected IBR Projects
There are engineering firms that provide individual engineering services under separate contracts. Grid Engineering Group provides something structurally different: a multi-discipline engineering group where the disciplines communicate with each other before the project reaches a commissioning milestone that reveals a gap.
The commissioning failure that causes the most project delays is not a failure within a discipline — it is a failure at the interface between disciplines. The relay settings that conflict with the SCADA trip logic. The SCADA telemetry that does not match the connection agreement registered data points. The FAT reports that were produced against the original equipment specification rather than the as-built configuration. When commissioning, protection relay engineering, and SCADA integration are delivered by the same engineering group, the engineers are aware of each other's assumptions and review each other's outputs before energisation. That interface review — which takes hours within a single group and takes weeks between separate firms — is the engineering work that prevents the commissioning delays that cost projects their COD.
In large multidisciplinary engineering firms, the senior engineer who assesses the project and writes the proposal often disappears once the contract is signed. Junior engineers working from templates and standard document formats deliver the actual scope. The senior engineer returns for the client presentation at the end. Our group model works differently. The engineers who scope the engagement are the engineers who perform the technical work. The relay settings calculation is reviewed by an engineer who has commissioned relay systems on a 200MW solar farm, not by an engineer who has read the standard. That distinction produces relay settings files that work on the first commissioning test — not on the third.
An engineer who has only commissioned solar farms in Australia's NEM applies Australian assumptions to every project. Those assumptions are correct for NEM projects. They are wrong for ERCOT projects where the interconnection agreement protection requirements, the commissioning test procedures, and the NSP telemetry interface are all different. Our team has delivered commissioning, protection engineering, and SCADA integration in Australia, ERCOT, PJM, CAISO, and the UK. That cross-market experience produces engineers who understand why each jurisdiction's requirements are set as they are — not just what they say. An engineer who knows why a requirement exists makes better engineering decisions when a novel situation requires engineering judgment that the standard does not directly address.
Grid Engineering Group does not build substations. We do not manufacture protection relays. We do not provide EPC turnkey services. Our engineers are independent of construction and equipment supply interests — which means our technical recommendations are based on what produces the best engineering outcome, not on what generates the most billable follow-on work for the firm. For developers and asset owners, this independence matters most in two situations: when evaluating whether to accept a commissioning test result or require further testing, and when advising on whether an existing protection scheme requires redesign or can be updated with revised settings. An engineer who is also selling commissioning services has a financial interest in finding more work. An independent engineering group has an interest in the correct engineering answer.
A commissioning report is not an outcome. A protection relay settings file is not an outcome. A plant that energised on the scheduled date, operating within its registered parameters, with every commissioning hold point formally accepted that is an outcome. These are the outcomes we are measured by.
Plant energised on COD. All 14 connection conditions formally accepted by AEMO within 28 days. Zero commissioning hold points outstanding at first dispatch.
Protection relay settings reviewed and corrected before FAT. SCADA telemetry accepted by ERCOT on first submission. BESS commercial operations achieved on the PPA delivery date.
Grid Engineering Group handles project delivery commissioning, protection relay engineering, SCADA integration, and field services. Our sister firm, American Power Engineers, handles the engineering advisory that sits upstream: AEMO grid connection consulting, Generator Performance Standards compliance, NERC compliance, and renewable energy technical due diligence.
Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) is the commissioning test program conducted at the manufacturer’s facility — typically for protection relays, inverters, BESS battery management systems, and plant controllers — before the equipment is shipped to site. FAT verifies that the equipment performs to its specification in a controlled environment, with factory engineers, instruments, and the ability to make adjustments before the equipment leaves the facility. FAT test procedures are prepared by the commissioning engineer, reviewed by the asset owner and the EPC contractor, and conducted at the manufacturer’s factory under witnessed conditions. FAT test records form part of the commissioning documentation package and are referenced by the NSP during the connection condition compliance review.Site Acceptance Testing (SAT) is conducted at the project site after the equipment has been installed and the plant electrical system has been assembled. SAT verifies that the equipment performs correctly in its installed configuration — with the actual wiring, the actual cable lengths, the actual CT and VT ratios, and the actual SCADA connections. SAT for protection relays involves secondary injection testing using relay test equipment (OMICRON CMC or equivalent) to verify that each relay element operates at the correct pickup value, within the correct time delay, and that the trip output signals reach the correct circuit breakers. SAT for SCADA systems verifies that each data point in the connection agreement schedule appears correctly in the NSP’s energy management system. A plant cannot proceed to energisation until all SAT hold points have been formally signed off.
The difference is primarily in the telemetry interface requirements — the specific data points, the communication protocol, and the response time specifications that the network operator mandates as a condition of connection.In Australia’s NEM, AEMO requires generator SCADA systems to provide a specified set of real-time data points to AEMO’s Energy Management System (EMS) — including active power, reactive power, frequency, voltage at the high-voltage bus, available capacity, and dispatch status. The communication protocol is typically DNP3 for older SCADA systems or IEC 61850 GOOSE messaging for digital substation projects. AEMO specifies the polling rate, the data point format, and the alarm and event reporting requirements in the connection agreement’s technical schedules. For Market Ancillary Service Provider (MASP) registered BESS projects, the telemetry requirements are more extensive and include state of charge, available FCAS capacity for each service, and control set-point acknowledgement signals.In ERCOT, the Interconnection Agreement requires the generator to provide SCADA data to ERCOT’s EMS through the ICCP (Inter-Control Center Communications Protocol) link. ERCOT specifies the required data points in its SCADA and Telemetry requirements document, which covers MW output, MVAR output, unit status, available capacity, and AGC (Automatic Generation Control) signals for units registered as controllable generators. The communication protocol is ICCP, not DNP3. ERCOT also requires the SCADA commissioning to be completed and accepted before the unit can participate in the ERCOT energy market.For grid engineering teams who have only worked in one jurisdiction, applying NEM assumptions to an ERCOT project — or vice versa — produces SCADA design documents that do not meet the NSP’s requirements and require rework. We apply the correct requirements for each jurisdiction from the first SCADA design document.
BESS commissioning in the NEM is more technically complex than solar PV commissioning because a BESS project is simultaneously a generator (when discharging) and a load (when charging), and it may be registered as a Market Ancillary Service Provider (MASP) providing FCAS (Frequency Control Ancillary Services) — which imposes specific performance testing obligations beyond the standard generator connection commissioning.The commissioning sequence for a NEM BESS project covers: (1) Battery system commissioning — cell-level and rack-level BMS verification, thermal management system tests, cell balancing verification, and safety system tests; (2) Power conversion system commissioning — inverter commissioning including protection relay settings, reactive power control range verification, and ride-through capability tests; (3) SCADA and control system commissioning — AEMO telemetry interface verification, plant controller functional tests, FCAS response tests if registered as a MASP; (4) Grid connection commissioning — protection relay secondary injection tests, energisation procedure including staged energisation of the LV-HV transformer, reactive power tests at the high-voltage bus; (5) Performance tests — active power ramp rate verification, reactive power capability curve verification at multiple state of charge levels, frequency response test if registered for FCAS.For BESS projects with Grid-Forming Inverter (GFM) technology, additional commissioning tests are required to demonstrate the synthetic inertia response and the system strength contribution — these may include PSCAD simulation comparison tests and specific field measurement tests agreed with AEMO and the TNSP. The connection condition evidence package must include all test records, signed by the commissioning engineer and witnessed by the NSP representative.
NERC PRC-029-1 establishes mandatory voltage and frequency ride-through performance requirements for inverter-based resources (IBR) connected to the bulk electric system in North America. From a commissioning engineering perspective, PRC-029-1 requires that the IBR demonstrate — through either physical test evidence or validated dynamic model simulation — that its voltage and frequency ride-through performance meets the envelopes defined in the standard’s attachment tables.The commissioning engineering implications of PRC-029-1 are specific: the protection relay settings at the point of interconnection (POI) must not cause the IBR to trip during disturbances within the PRC-029-1 no-trip zone. This means the commissioning engineer must verify that the under/over voltage relay (27/59) settings and the under/over frequency relay (81) settings — in the plant protection relay and in the inverter’s internal protection — are set outside the PRC-029-1 no-trip boundaries. The commissioning test procedure must include verification of these settings through secondary injection tests at the relay, confirming pickup levels and time delay characteristics.Additionally, the commissioning documentation must include RSAW (Reliability Standard Audit Worksheet) evidence demonstrating that each PRC-029-1 requirement has been met. For IBR Category 1 and Category 2 projects under the NERC IBR Registration Initiative, this RSAW documentation must be prepared by a licensed PE or NERC-qualified Subject Matter Expert. Grid Engineering Group prepares PRC-029-1 commissioning test procedures and RSAW documentation for BESS and solar IBR projects across ERCOT, PJM, and MISO.
EPC support engineering is a specialist resource deployment model — not a separate engineering contract for the full project scope. When an EPC contractor has an in-house engineering team that covers most disciplines but needs a specialist for protection relay settings, SCADA integration, or HV commissioning, our EPC support engineers are deployed as specialist resources under the EPC’s existing delivery framework.In practical terms: our engineer attends the EPC’s technical coordination meetings, produces deliverables in the EPC’s document numbering system, works to the EPC’s project schedule milestones, and signs off their scope under the EPC’s QA/QC management system. The EPC contractor remains the primary engineering delivery entity. We are not a competing engineering delivery channel — we fill the specific capability gap that the EPC has identified, without the EPC having to stand up a full subcontract with a separate engineering firm’s management overhead.A full engineering contract is appropriate when the asset owner is managing construction directly (without a primary EPC contractor), when the full engineering scope — including protection relay, SCADA, commissioning, and HV testing — is required under a single contract, or when the project has complexity that requires coordinated engineering management across all disciplines from the start of the design phase. Both models are available through Grid Engineering Group. The scoping call at the start of an engagement identifies which model is appropriate for the specific project and delivery structure.
Commissioning duration for a utility-scale solar farm depends on plant capacity, the number of inverter units, the complexity of the protection scheme, the SCADA interface requirements, and the NSP’s commissioning hold point procedure. For a 100MW to 200MW solar farm with a single high-voltage interconnection point, typical commissioning timelines run as follows: FAT at the inverter manufacturer’s facility (2-3 weeks, depending on the number of inverter types being tested), pre-commissioning checks at site including loop checks and insulation resistance testing (2-4 weeks, depending on plant size and number of inverter strings), protection relay secondary injection testing and SCADA interface verification (1-2 weeks), energisation and functional testing (1-2 weeks including staged energisation and NSP hold point sign-off), and performance tests including reactive power capability and ramp rate verification (1-2 weeks).Total site commissioning time for a 100MW solar farm is typically 6-10 weeks from start of pre-commissioning activities to completion of all performance tests. This assumes a plant that arrives at the commissioning phase with complete and verified protection relay settings, an AEMO-accepted SCADA configuration, and a commissioning test procedure that has been reviewed and accepted by the NSP before commissioning activities begin. Projects where protection relay settings are finalised during commissioning, or where the SCADA configuration requires rework during integration testing, extend these timelines significantly — often by 4-8 weeks, which in a tight COD situation can mean the difference between a timely commercial operations date and a missed PPA delivery milestone.
IEC 61850 is the international standard for communication networks and systems for power utility automation — it defines both the data model (how electrical data is structured and named) and the communication services (how data is exchanged between protection relays, merging units, bay controllers, and the substation SCADA system) within a digital substation. Implementing IEC 61850 in a new substation or as a retrofit to an existing substation requires engineering that goes beyond relay selection and settings — it requires a systematic design of the complete communication architecture.Our IEC 61850 engineering scope covers: System Specification Description (SSD) development — defining the substation function requirements and the single-line diagram in IEC 61850 language; System Configuration Description (SCD) file development — the master configuration file that defines all IEDs, their logical nodes, data sets, and GOOSE messaging subscriptions; IED Configuration Description (ICD) file management — obtaining and verifying the manufacturer-provided ICD files for each relay and merging unit in the substation; GOOSE messaging design — defining the publisher-subscriber relationships for protection trip signals, interlocking, and alarm functions; and Sampled Values (SV) design for process bus architectures where merging units replace conventional current and voltage transformer wiring.In Australia, digital substations using IEC 61850 are increasingly common in TNSP capital programs and in large utility-scale renewable energy projects. In the UK, IEC 61850 is mandatory for new NGET transmission substations above 33kV under the Grid Code’s Engineering Recommendation requirements. We have delivered IEC 61850 engineering for digital substation projects in both markets.
Grid Engineering Group and American Power Engineers are sister firms with coordinated but distinct scopes. On a single project, the two firms can be engaged independently — by the developer directly, or by an EPC contractor managing project delivery — with each firm covering its respective scope. The coordination between the two firms is a feature of the relationship, not a management overhead.A typical engagement where both firms are involved: American Power Engineers is engaged at the feasibility stage to conduct a pre-application system strength assessment and prepare the AEMO connection application. Grid Engineering Group is engaged at the detailed engineering stage to develop the protection relay settings and SCADA integration design. As the project approaches commissioning, both firms are active simultaneously — APE is managing the connection condition compliance evidence for AEMO, and GEG is delivering the commissioning test procedures and SAT program. The protection relay settings that GEG calculates must be consistent with the registered GPS parameters that APE has agreed with AEMO — both firms review the interface between these scopes before the relay settings are submitted for implementation.Developers and asset owners who work with both firms benefit from this coordination without having to manage the interface themselves. A single project team can engage both firms under separate scopes while knowing that the two engineering teams are coordinating on the technical interfaces between advisory work and delivery work — which is exactly the coordination gap that creates commissioning problems when the advisory firm and the delivery firm are not communicating.
Since 2012, our engineering group has delivered commissioning, protection relay engineering, SCADA integration, and field services for renewable energy projects across Australia, North America, and the United Kingdom. Tell us what you are working on.
info@gridengineeringgroup.com · Melbourne, Australia · Since 2012 · AEMO · NEM · ERCOT · PJM · National Grid ESO
