Special Shutdown

Precautions in Substations
and Power House
• Rule no. 1 (clearance)
• Enough clearance from energized parts should be provided to avoid
accidental contact with them. If that can’t be met, live parts should be guarded
or enclosed.

6 rules to provide
substation safety
• Rule no. 2 (minimum height)
• A minimum height from the ground to any ungrounded part of an
electrical installation should be 8’-6”, so a person staying on the ground can’t
touch a substation element or its part which may become energized
accidentally. For example, the bottom of a post insulator supporting an
energized bus does not normally have any potential.
• Rule no. 3 (illumination…)
• There should be sufficient illumination for personnel to clearly see
their surroundings and perform any work safely. Required illumination levels
are specified in NESC® [1].
• Rule no. 4 (passageways…)
• All passageways and stairs should be wide enough for personnel to navigate
them safely, adequate railing should be provided, and floor openings should
have guard rails.
• Rule no. 5 (evacuation routes)
• Exits should be clearly marked and evacuation routes should be free
from obstructions. Depending on the function of the building (for example,
control house), it may require several exits to avoid personnel being trapped
during equipment fault, fire, etc.
• Rule no. 6 (grounding, as always)
• All substation metallic structures, fences, and equipment tanks should
be connected to a station ground grid which should be designed to ensure
that step and touch potential values are lower than the ones stipulated in the
applicable standards.
What is the procedure for shutting down
an electrical substation for, say,
maintenance?
• De-energizing a substation for maintenance is typically
not done because the load served by the substation must
remain in service. When maintenance is required, only
those parts of the substation that require service are
taken off-line by the operation of opening circuit
breakers and isolation switches.
If the total substation needs
to be de-energized, however,
then the following (general)
procedure would be:
1.alternate power sources are available, transfer substation
load to feeders served by other substations by temporarily
synchronizing to the alternate sources;
2.Open feeder breakers and open feeder isolation
switches. This action transfers the load to the other feeder
sources. If alternate sources were not available, then
when the feeder breakers are opened, all loads would
loose power and ‘lights out’ to the customers. At this
point, the substation will still be energized with no feeder
load;
3.Open the high-voltage breakers and isolation switches. This
will de-energize the transformer(s) and all bus bars;
In electrical engineering, a disconnector, disconnect switch or isolator
switch is used to ensure that an electrical circuit is completely de-energized
for service or maintenance. Such switches are often found in electrical
distribution and industrial applications, where machinery must have its
source of driving power removed for adjustment or repair. High-voltage
isolation switches are used in electrical substations to allow isolation of
apparatus such as circuit breakers, transformers, and transmission lines, for
maintenance. The disconnector is usually not intended for normal control of
the circuit, but only for safety isolation. Disconnectors can be operated either
manually or automatically.
• In electrical engineering, a disconnector, disconnect
switch or isolator switch is used to ensure that an electrical
circuit is completely de-energized for service or maintenance.
Such switches are often found in electrical
distribution and industrial applications, where machinery must
have its source of driving power removed for adjustment or
repair. High-voltage isolation switches are used in electrical
substations to allow isolation of apparatus such as circuit
breakers, transformers, and transmission lines, for maintenance.
The disconnector is usually not intended for normal control of
the circuit, but only for safety isolation. Disconnectors can be
operated either manually or automatically.
4.All substations will also have a station service voltage
source often served by the distribution-voltage bus. The
station service provides the auxiliary loads for the station
battery charger(s), control enclosure lights, yard lights,
motor operated devices, etc. The station service is critical
and substations will typically have a backup source like a
propane fueled backup generator or a feed from an
alternate source that comes from outside the sub;
5.All substations also have a DC storage battery system to
operate all critical protection and control systems. Should
the substation remain off-line for a prolonged period of
time, a backup AC source needs to be provided to keep the
storage battery charged until power is restored.