Chapter 1

PROJECT BACKGROUND
The Project
Sta. Maria Bulacan is a first class highly urban municipality in the province of Bulacan, Philippines. It is
the most populous municipality in Central Luzon and the 5th most populous in the Philippines. Today, it
enjoys the status of being the financial, commercial, and industrial center of eastern Bulacan. It has the
highest concentration of business establishments and industrial parks in the area. As the development of its
economy increases, the demand on power also increases. The project is intended to design a power substation to provide an improvement operation in Sta. Maria Bulacan. The substation itself has an undersized
power capacity. The main nominal power rating supplied to the sub-station from the Power Plant is only
83.33 MVA wherein the power load from the main feeder to be adjusted based on forecast data of load in
the year 2019 hence the construction and upgrade of a substation will be at least on a working three (3)
years as a duration of improvement in the Sta. Maria Bulacan Power Substation. The forecasted load of
approximately 100 MVA will be the basis for the upgrade model of the substation. If this problem is not
solved as early as possible, this will lead to serious problems in the power system and even to the
household appliances.
Project Objectives
The objective of the project is to upgrade the existing 83.33 MVA substation to the forecasted load
of 100 MVA in Sta. Maria, Bulacan. Specifically, it addresses the following:
a) Design the bus scheme of the substation using double bus
b) Design the switchgear layout of the substation which includes:
1. ___________
2. ___________
3. ___________
4. ___________
c) Design the grounding system of the substation using___________________
The Client
The client of the project is the Meralco substation located in Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
Project Scope and Limitations
The project includes the upgrade of the power substation within the vicinity of Sta. Maria, Bulacan.
It covers the substation design of double bus scheme and the switchgear layout. The project focuses only

on the electrical design layout only. The grounding system will be used is based on the soil type within the
area of the existing substation in Sta. Maria Bulacan.
Significance of the project
A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations
transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important
functions. Substations may be owned and operated by an electrical utility, or may be owned by a large
industrial or commercial customer. Generally substations are unattended, relying on SCADA for remote
supervision and control.
The power substation of Meralco (Manila Electric Company) at Santa Maria, Bulacan is currently
undersized power capacity due to a high load compare to the rated supply from the main power transformer
of the substation. Different design of sub-station bus scheme can help achieve sustainable development
goals through provisions of reliable, secure, and affordable design scheme. Future problem, specifically,
power shortage in Sta. Maria, Bulacan can be reduced by applying this project in order to supply the
growing demand of Sta. Maria Bulacan. The researchers wanted to upgrade the existing design based on
the demand within the vicinity of Sta. Maria Bulacan.