15EE2023- Substation Design

Mr.P.Venkatesh Kumar
 To acquire knowledge of basic substation components
To understand on the constructional features and design of substations
To gain basic concepts of substation automation and control

Types of substations layout and bus bar arrangements Grounding;

design and Practices, substation auxiliaries, Cable routing, data
acquisition, substation Control, load shedding, implementation.
SCADA Communication – Substation operation substation
maintenance

Reference Books
1. Gupta P.V., Satnam P.S., “Substation Design and Equipment”, Dhanpat Rai Publications
Private Limited, New Delhi, 2013.
2. John D. McDonald, “Electric Power Substations Engineering”, CRC Press, USA, 3 rd
Edition, 2012.
3. Dominik Pieniazek P.E., “HV Substation Design: Applications and Considerations”,
IEEE CED, USA, 2012.
4. Leon Kempner, “Substation Structure Design Guide”, ASCE Publications, USA, 2008.
5. Praneesh Prasad, “Substation Design”, California State University, Sacramento, 2006.
• An electrical substation is a part of an electricity
generation, transmission and distribution system
where voltage is transformed from high to low or in
reverse using transformers.
• It also serves as a point of connection between
various power system elements such as
transmission lines, transformers, generators and
loads.
• To allow for flexibility in connecting the elements,
circuit breakers are used as high power switches.
• Electric power may flow through several
substations between generating plant and
consumer, and may be changed in voltage in several
steps.
• There are different kinds of substation such as
Transmission substation, distribution substation,
collector substation, switching substation and some
other types of substation.
• The general functions of a substation may include:
 voltage transformation

 connection point for transmission lines

 switchyard for network configuration

 monitoring point for control centre

protection of power lines and apparatus

Communication with other substations and regional control centre

POWER TRANSFORMER :
• It contains primary winding , transformer coil(inductively coupled coil)&
secondary winding.
• A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic
flux in the transformer's core, and in the secondary winding.

CURRENT TRANSFORMER :
• When current in a circuit is too high to directly apply to measuring
instruments, a current transformer is used. A current transformer has a
primary winding, a magnetic core, and a secondary winding.
• The alternating current flowing in the primary produces a magnetic field in
the core, which then induces current flow in the secondary winding circuit

POTENTIAL TRANSFORMER :
• When voltage in a circuit is too high to directly apply to measuring
instruments, a potential transformer is used.
• Its principle of operation is same as that of power or current transformer. In
this transformer the number of turns in secondary winding is less than
primarywinding.
ISOLATOR :
• It is essentially off load device.
• Isolators are manually as well as automatically operated.
• These are fitted on both sides of transformer, circuit breaker or any
equipment.
RELAY :
• A relay is a fault sensing device on power system.
• Many relays use an electromagnetism for switching mechanism. Other types
of relays are –solid state relay, microprocessor based relay and Buchholz
relay.
CIRCUIT BREAKER :
• A circuit breaker is a fault clearing device.
• It is an automatically-operated electrical switch designed to protect an circuit
from damage caused by overload or short circuit.
• Unlike a fuse, which operates once and then has to be replaced, a circuit
breaker can be reset (either manually or automatically) to resume normal
operation.
BATTERY :
• At 400 KV substation two sets of 220v & one set of 48 v .
• The battery charging equipments comprises of a float charger and a
boost charger.
• Stabilization output voltage is provided in the float charger to float
the battery at the correct level. The battery can be boost charging
after a prolonged mains failure by the boost charger.
WAVE TRAP :
• It connected is series with power line. It is basically an inductor of
rating in millihenry. It blocks the high frequency carrier waves
(24 kHz to 500 kHz) and let power waves (50 Hz - 60 Hz) to pass
through.
 SURGE ARRESTORS :
• The protection against transient voltage surges is provided by surge
arrestors.
• They are usually connected between phase and ground. Surge
arrestor discharges current impulse surge to earth and dissipates
energy in the form of heat.

EARTH WIRE :
• Earth wire in EHV transmission lines is used to provide safeguard
against lightening other transient surges and efficient operation of
protection system under fault condition.
• 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
•
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
• System requirements including
 Load growth
 System stability
 System reliability
 System capacity
Customer requirements including
 Additional load

 Power quality

 Reliability

 Customer relations

 Customer complaints

 Neighbourhood impact
 Budgeting
• 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
• 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.
• Requirements for the new station, such as voltages,
capacity, number of feeders, etc., the issue of
funding should then be addressed.
• 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,
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. Note that this
process may be an annual occurrence
 Traditional and Innovative Substation
Design
• Environmental
• Civil
• Mechanical
• Structural
• Electrical—high voltage
• Protection and controls
• Communications
• functional requirements such as system and customer
requirements and develops alternative design
solutions.
• 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.
 Site Selection and Acquisition
• a footprint of the station has been developed,
including the layout of the major equipment
• 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.
zoning application
• 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

• federal issues in the case of wetlands or other sensitive

areas.
the following site evaluation criteria could be
used:
– Economical evaluation
– Technical evaluation
– Community acceptance
Economical evaluation
the level of affordability,
return on investment,
initial capital cost, and
life cycle cost.
• Technical aspects
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.
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.
community acceptance
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

 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
2. Design
a. Site preparation
i. Drainage and erosion, earth work, roads and access, and
fencing
b. Foundations
i. Soils, concrete design, and pile design
c. Structures
i. 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
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
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)
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
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
Station security
i. Physical security
ii. Electronic security
Station Construction
– 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.
• Station Commissioning
– 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)

 Electrical Bus-Bar and its Types
• An electrical bus bar is defined as a conductor or a
group of conductor used for collecting electric
power from the incoming feeders and distributes
them to the outgoing feeders.
• The bus bar system consists the isolator and the
circuit breaker.
• The electrical bus bar is available in rectangular,
cross-sectional, round and many other shapes.
• The rectangular bus bar is mostly used in the power
system.
• The copper and aluminium are used for the
manufacturing of the electrical bus bar.
• The different types of bus bar arrangements
are:
1. Single bus bar
2. Single bus bar system with sectionalization
3. Double bus bar with single breaker
4. Double bus bar with two circuit breakers
5. Breakers and a half with two main buses
6. Main and transfer bus bar
7. Double bus bar with bypass isolator
8. Ring bus
Double Bus Double Breaker Arrangement

Advantages of Double Bus Double Breaker

•This type of arrangement provides the maximum reliability and flexibility in the supply. Because
the fault and maintenance would not disturb their continuity.
•The continuity of the supply remains same because the load is transferrable from one bus to
another on the occurrence of the fault.
Disadvantages of double bus Double breaker
•In such type of arrangement two buses and two circuit breakers are used which increases the
cost of the system.
•Their maintenance cost is very high.
Sectionalized Double Bus Bar Arrangement.
 One and a Half Breaker Arrangement

Advantages of One and a Half Breaker Arrangement

It protects the arrangement against the loss of supply.
The potential of the bus bar is used for operating the relay.
In such type of arrangement, the additional circuits are easily added to the system.
Disadvantages of One and a Half Breaker Arrangement
The circuit becomes complicated because of the relaying system.
Their maintenance cost is very high.
 Ring Main Arrangement

Advantages of Ring Main Arrangement

•Such type of arrangement will provide two paths for the supply. Thus the fault will not affect
their working.
•The fault is localized for the particular section. Hence the complete circuit is not affected by the
fault.
•In this arrangement, a circuit breaker can be maintained without interrupting the supply.
Disadvantages of Ring Main Arrangement
Difficulties occur in the addition of the new circuit.
Overloading occurs on the system if any of the circuit breakers is opened.