Power System

Circuit Breakers and Substations

Lecture No. 8
Engr. Raheel Muzzammel
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Lahore

Engr. Raheel Muzzammel 1

Electric Power Substation Engineering

Engr. Raheel Muzzammel 2

Electric Power Substation Engineering
• Complex Engineering Problem
• The construction of new substations and the expansion of existing
facilities are commonplace projects in electric utilities.
• However, due to its complexity, very few utility employees are familiar
with the complete process that allows these projects to be
successfully completed.

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Electric Power Substation Engineering
• Major Types of Substations
• There are four major types of electric substations.
• The first type of substation is the switchyard at a generating station.
• These facilities connect the generators to the utility grid and also
provide off-site power to the plant.
• Generator switchyards tend to be large installations that are typically
engineered and constructed by the power plant designers and are
subject to planning, finance, and construction efforts different from
those of routine substation projects.

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Electric Power Substation Engineering
• The second type of substation, typically known as the customer
substation, functions as the main source of electric power supply for one
particular business customer.
• The technical requirements and the business case for this type of facility
depend highly on the customer’s requirements.
• The third type of substation involves the transfer of bulk power across the
network and is referred to as a system station.
• Some of these stations provide only switching facilities (no power
transformers) whereas others perform voltage conversion as well.
• These large stations typically serve as the end points for transmission lines
originating from generating switchyards and provide the electrical power
for circuits that feed transformer stations.

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Electric Power Substation Engineering
• They are integral to the long-term reliability and integrity of the
electric system and enable large blocks of energy to be moved from
the generators to the load centers.
• Since these system stations are strategic facilities and usually very
expensive to construct and maintain.
• The fourth type of substation is the distribution station. These are
the most common facilities in power electric systems and provide the
distribution circuits that directly supply most electric customers.
• They are typically located close to the load centers, meaning that they
are usually located in or near the neighborhoods that they supply,
and are the stations most likely to be encountered by the customers.
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Electric Power Substation Engineering
• Depending on the type of equipment used, the substations could be
 Outdoor type with air-insulated equipment
 Indoor type with air-insulated equipment
 Outdoor type with gas-insulated equipment
 Indoor type with gas-insulated equipment
 Mixed technology substations
 Mobile substations

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• Need Determination
• Budgeting
• Financing
• Traditional and Innovative Substation Design
• Site Selection and Acquisition
• Design, Construction, and Commissioning Process

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Need Determination
• An active planning process is necessary to develop the business case for
creating a substation or for making major modifications.
• Planners, operating and maintenance personnel, asset managers, and
design engineers are among the various employees typically involved in
considering such issues in substation design as load growth, system
stability, system reliability, and system capacity; and their evaluations
determine the need for new or improved substation facilities.
• Customer requirements, such as new factories, etc., should be considered,
as well as customer relations and complaints.
• In some instances, political factors also influence this process, as is the case
when reliability is a major issue.

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Need Determination
• At this stage, the elements of the surrounding area are defined and
assessed and a required in-service date is established.
• It is usual for utilities to have long-term plans for the growth of their
electric systems in order to meet the anticipated demand.
• Ten year forecasts are common and require significant input from the
engineering staff.
• System planners determine the capacities of energy required and the
requirements for shifting load around the system, but engineering
personnel must provide cost info on how to achieve the planners’ goals.
• Planners conduct studies that produce multiple options and all of these
scenarios need to be priced in order to determine the most economical
means of serving the customers.

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Need Determination
• A basic outline of what is required in what area can be summarized as follows:
• System Requirements including
 Load growth
 System stability
 System reliability
 System capacity
• Customer requirements including
 Additional load
 Power quality
 Reliability
 Customer relations
 Customer complaints
 Neighborhood impact

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Budgeting
• Part of the long-range plan involves what bulk power substations
need to be created or expanded in order to move large blocks of
energy around the system as necessary and where do they need to be
located.
• Determinations have to be made as to the suitability of former
designs for the area in question.
• To achieve this, most utilities rely on standardized designs and
modular costs developed over time, but should these former designs
be unsuitable for the area involved, that is, unlikely to achieve
community acceptance, then alternative designs need to be pursued.

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Budgeting
• Different Cases
• In the case of bulk power substations, the equipment and land costs can
differ greatly from standard designs.
• Distribution stations, however, are the most common on most systems and
therefore have the best known installed costs.
• Since these are the substations closest to the customers, redesign is less
likely to be required than screening or landscaping, so costs do not vary
greatly.
• Having established the broad requirements for the new station, such as
voltages, capacity, number of feeders, etc., the issue of funding should then
be addressed.

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Budgeting
• This is typical when real estate investigations of available sites begin, since site
size and location can significantly affect the cost of the facility.
• Preliminary equipment layouts and engineering evaluations are also undertaken
at this stage to develop ballpark costs [an estimate of what something might
amount to numerically when a more accurate number is assessed, such as the
cost of a product.], which then have to be evaluated in the corporate budgetary
justification system.
• Preliminary manpower forecasts of all disciplines involved in the engineering and
construction of the substation should be undertaken, including identification of
the nature and extent of any work that the utility may need to contract out.
• This budgeting process will involve evaluation of the project in light of corporate
priorities and provide a general overview of cost and other resource
requirements.
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Budgeting
• Note that this process may be an annual occurrence.
• Any projects in which finances have yet to be spent are generally re-
evaluated every budget cycle.
• Cash Forecasting
• Cost estimating also entails cash forecasting; for planning purposes,
forecasts per year are sufficient.
• This means that every budget cycle, each proposed project must not only
be reviewed for cost accuracy, but the cash forecast must also be updated.
• It is during these annual reviews that standardized or modularized costs
also need to be reviewed and revised if necessary.
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Financing
• Once the time has arrived for work to proceed on the project, the process of
obtaining funding for the project must be started.
• Requirements
• Preliminary detailed designs are required to develop firm pricing.
• Coordination between business units is necessary to develop accurate costs and
to develop a realistic schedule.
• This may involve detailed manpower forecasting in many areas.
• The resource information has to be compiled in the format necessary to be
submitted to the corporate capital estimate system and internal presentations
must be conducted to sell the project to all levels of management.
• Sometimes it may be necessary to obtain funding to develop the capital
estimate.

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Financing
• Why is funding required for capital estimation?
• This may be the case when the cost to develop the preliminary
designs is beyond normal departmental budgets, or if unfamiliar
technology is expected to be implemented.
• This can also occur on large, complex projects or when a major
portion of the work will be contracted.
• It may also be necessary to obtain early partial funding in cases where
expensive, long lead-time equipment may need to be purchased such
as large power transformers.

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Traditional and Innovative Substation Design
• Substation engineering is a complex multidiscipline engineering
function.
• It could include the following engineering disciplines:
• Environmental
• Civil
• Mechanical
• Structural
• Electrical—high voltage
• Protection and controls
• Communications

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Traditional and Innovative Substation Design
• Traditionally, high-voltage substations are engineered based on pre-
established layouts and concepts and usually conservative
requirements.
• This approach may restrict the degree of freedom of introducing new
solutions i.e., only the incorporation of new primary and secondary
technology in pre-engineered standards can be achieved.
• A more innovative approach is one that takes into account functional
requirements such as system and customer requirements and
develops alternative design solutions.

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Traditional and Innovative Substation Design
• System requirements include elements of rated voltage, rated
frequency, existing system configuration (present and future),
connected loads, lines, generation, voltage tolerances (over and
under), thermal limits, short-circuit levels, frequency tolerances (over
and under), stability limits, critical fault clearing time, system
expansion, and interconnection.
• Customer requirements include environmental consideration
(climatic, noise, aesthetic, spills, and right-of-way), space
consideration, power quality, reliability, availability, national and
international applicable standards, network security, expandability,
and maintainability.

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Traditional and Innovative Substation Design
• Carefully selected design criteria could be developed to reflect the
company philosophy.
• This would enable, when desired, consideration and incorporation of
elements such as life cycle cost, environmental impact, initial capital
investment, etc., into the design process.
• Design solutions could then be evaluated based on pre-established
evaluation criteria that satisfy the company interests and policies.

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Site Selection and Acquisition
• At this stage, a footprint of the station has been developed, including the layout
of the major equipment.
• A decision on the final location of the facility can now be made and various
options can be evaluated.
• Final grades, roadways, storm water retention, and environmental issues are
addressed at this stage, and required permits are identified and obtained.
• Community and political acceptance must be achieved and details of station
design are negotiated in order to achieve consensus.
• Depending on local zoning ordinances, it may be prudent to make settlement on
the property contingent upon successfully obtaining zoning approval since the
site is of little value to the utility without such approval.
• It is not unusual for engineering, real estate, public affairs, legal, planning,
operations, and customer service personnel along with various levels of
management to be involved in the decisions during this phase.
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Site Selection and Acquisition
• The first round of permit applications can now begin.
• Although the zoning application is usually a local government issue, permits for
grading, storm water management, roadway access, and other environmental or
safety concerns are typically handled at the state or provincial level and may be
federal issues in the case of wetlands or other sensitive areas.
• Other federal permits may also be necessary, such as those for aircraft warning
lights for any tall towers or masts in the station.
• Permit applications are subject to unlimited bureaucratic manipulation and
typically require multiple submissions and could take many months to reach
conclusion.
• Depending on the local ordinances, zoning approval may be automatic or may
require hearings that could stretch across many months.
• Zoning applications with significant opposition could take years to resolve.

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Site Selection and Acquisition
• Site Evaluation Criteria
• As a rule of thumb, the following site evaluation criteria could be used:
• Economical evaluation
• Technical evaluation
• Community acceptance
• Economical evaluation should address the level of affordability, return on investment,
initial capital cost, and life cycle cost.
• Technical aspects that can influence the site selection process could include the
following:
• Land: choose areas that minimize the need for earth movement and soil disposal.
• Water: avoid interference with the natural drainage network.
• Vegetation: choose low-productivity farming areas or uncultivated land.
• Protected areas: avoid any areas or spots listed as protected areas.
• Community planning: avoid urban areas, development land, or land held in reserve for future
development.

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Site Selection and Acquisition
• Community involvement: engage community in the
approval process.
• Topography: flat but not prone to flood or water
stagnation.
• Soil: suitable for construction of roads and foundations;
low soil resistivity is desirable.
• Access: easy access to and from the site for transportation
of large equipment, operators, and maintenance teams.
• Line entries: establishment of line corridors (alternatives:
multi-circuit pylons, UG lines).
• Pollution: risk of equipment failure and maintenance costs
increase with pollution level.

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Site Selection and Acquisition
• To address community acceptance issues, it is recommended to
• Adopt a low profile layout with rigid buses supported on insulators over solid shape steel
structures
• Locate substations in visually screened areas (hills, forest), other buildings, and trees
• Use gas-insulated switchgear (GIS)
• Use colors, lighting
• Use underground egresses as opposed to overhead
• Other elements that may influence community acceptance are noise and oil
leakages or spills.
• To mitigate noise that may be emitted by station equipment, attention should be paid at
station orientation with respect to the location of noise-sensitive properties and the use of
mitigation measures such as noise barriers, sound enclosures, landscaping, and active noise
cancellation.
• The environmental impact of oil spills and their cleanup is governed by regulatory authorities
necessitating increased attention in substations to the need for secondary oil containment
and a Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) plan.

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Design, Construction, and Commissioning Process
• Station Design
• The following can be used as a guide for various design elements:
1. Basic layout
a. Stage development diagram
b. Bus configuration to meet single line requirements
c. Location of major equipment and steel structures based on single line
diagram
d. General concept of station
e. Electrical and safety clearances
f. Ultimate stage

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Design, Construction, and Commissioning Process
2. Design
a. Site preparation - Drainage and erosion, earth work, roads and access, and fencing
b. Foundations - Soils, concrete design, and pile design
c. Structures - Materials, finishes, and corrosion control
d. Buildings
i. Control, metering, relaying, and annunciation buildings—types such as masonry,
prefabricated, etc.
ii. Metalclad switchgear buildings
iii. GIS buildings
e. Mechanical systems
i. HVAC
ii. Sound enclosure ventilation
iii. Metalclad switchgear or GIS building ventilation
iv. Fire detection and protection
v. Oil sensing and spill prevention

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Design, Construction, and Commissioning Process
f. Buswork
i. Rigid buses
ii. Strain conductors—swing, bundle collapse
iii. Ampacity
iv. Connections
v. Phase spacing
vi. Short-circuit forces
g. Insulation
i. Basic impulse level and switching impulse level
h. Station insulators
i. Porcelain post type insulators
ii. Resistance graded insulators
iii. Polymeric post insulators
iv. Station insulator hardware
v. Selection of station insulator—TR—ANSI and CSA standard
vi. Pollution of insulators—pollution levels and selection of leakage distance

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Design, Construction, and Commissioning Process
i. Suspension insulators
i. Characteristics
ii. Porcelain suspension insulators
iii. Polymeric suspension insulators
iv. Suspension insulators hardware
v. Selection of suspension insulators
vi. Pollution of insulators—pollution levels and selection of leakage distance
j. Clearances
i. Electrical clearances
ii. Safety clearances
k. Overvoltages
i. Atmospheric and switching overvoltages
ii. Overvoltage protection—pipe and rod gaps, surge arresters
iii. Atmospheric overvoltage protection—lightning protection (skywires, lightning rods)

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Design, Construction, and Commissioning Process
l. Grounding
i. Function of grounding system
ii. Step, touch, mesh, and transferred voltages
iii. Allowable limits of body current
iv. Allowable limits of step and touch voltages
v. Soil resistivity
vi. General design guidelines
m. Neutral systems
i. Background of power system grounding
ii. Three- and four-wire systems
iii. HV and LV neutral systems
iv. Design of neutral systems
n. Station security
i. Physical security
ii. Electronic security

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Design, Construction, and Commissioning Process
• Station Construction
• With permits in hand and drawings published, the construction of the station can
begin.
• Site logistics and housekeeping can have a significant impact on the acceptance
of the facility.
• Parking for construction personnel, traffic routing, truck activity, trailers, fencing,
and mud and dirt control along with trash and noise can be major irritations for
neighbors, so attention to these details is essential for achieving community
acceptance.
• All the civil, electrical, and electronic systems are installed at this time.
• Proper attention should also be paid to site security during the construction
phase not only to safeguard the material and equipment but also to protect the
public.

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Design, Construction, and Commissioning Process
• Station Commissioning
• Once construction is complete, testing of various systems can
commence and all punch list items addressed.
• To avoid duplication of testing, it is recommended to develop an
inspection, testing, and acceptance plan (ITAP).
• Elements of ITAP include:
• Factory acceptance tests (FATs)
• Product verification plan (PVP)
• Site delivery acceptance test (SDAT)
• Site acceptance tests (SATs)
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Design, Construction, and Commissioning Process
• Final tests of the completed substation in a partially energized environment
to determine acceptability and conformance to customer requirements
under conditions as close as possible to normal operation conditions will
finalize the in-service tests and turnover to operations.
• Environmental cleanup must be undertaken and final landscaping can be
installed.
• Note that, depending upon the species of plants involved, it may be prudent to delay
final landscaping until a more favorable season in order to ensure optimal survival of
the foliage.
• Public relations personnel can make the residents and community leaders
aware that the project is complete and the station can be made functional
and turned over to the operating staff.

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Generalized Flow Chart of New Substation Establishment

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Thank You

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