8/26/2019 8 steps to follow in power substation design and engineering | EEP

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8 steps to follow in power substation design and

engineering
Home / Technical Articles / 8 steps to follow in power substation design and engineering

Substation design and engineering

Building a new substation or retrofitting the old one is a complex process full of design
and engineering tasks to be worked on. The main steps in substation design and
engineering are as follows:

8 steps to follow in power substation design and engineering (photo credit: Matt
Alsup via Flickr)
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Step 1 – switching system

Selection of a substation switching system: ring bus, breaker-and-a-half, etc. based

on reliability requirements.

Substation switching schemes

Step 2 – key plan, location of components

Preparation of a key plan which should show the location of all components of a
substation and their interconnections, as well as steel structures, control house, fire
walls, driveways, fence and property line.

Electrical Substation Tour

Step 3 – equipment selection and ordering

Selection and ordering of equipment, which is usually done in a utility company by a

designated group of equipment experts.

They specify transformers, breakers, etc., request bids form approved vendors, evaluate the bids, place the
order with a winning bidder, and participate in testing and commissioning of equipment.

Step 4 – engineering support

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Engineering support for licensing and permitting which includes preparation of

necessary drawings sealed by professional engineers, testifying at public hearings at the
municipalities where a new substation is planned to be built, ordering of noise studies
and selecting means of noise mitigation if needed.

Step 5 – civil and structural design

Civil and structural design which includes:

1. Pile design
2. Foundations
3. Steel structures
4. Control house

Bucknell Civil Engineering 2013 Senior Design Project

Step 6 – electrical layout design

Electrical layout design which includes:

1. Positioning of equipment
2. Bus design
3. Design of manhole and conduit system
4. Design of auxiliary A.C. power system
5. Selection of D.C. batteries and battery chargers
6. Layout of control house
7. Grounding and lightning protection design

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substation tour

Step 7 – relay protection, SCADA

Control design which includes:

1. Relay protection and instrumentation system schematics and wiring diagrams

2. Relay racks or panels
3. Remote control and metering (SCADA – system control and data acquisition)

Alstom Grid DS Agile Digital Control System 2014

Step 8

Construction support which includes a resolution of technical problems discovered

during construction, ordering of additional materials, etc.
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Further details of major equipment

Because selection of the major equipment is one of the most critical tasks in substation
engineering, there are a lot of details. These are just the part of some major equipment
ratings:

Power transformer ratings

Capacity including overload capability

Cooling class
Frequency
Primary and secondary voltage
Phase relation between primary and secondary voltages
BIL for both high and low voltage sides
Voltage regulation requirements: load and no-load taps
Transformer impedance
Sound level

Circuit breaker ratings

Rated maximum voltage

Rated continuous current
BIL
Rated short circuit current
Interrupting time
Rated frequency

Current transformer (CT) ratings

BIL
Rated current
Rated frequency
Number of taps and ratio for each tap
Accuracy class
Type (bushing CT, free standing, etc.)

Voltage transformer (VT) ratings

Rated voltage factor

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Rated primary voltage (Up)

Rated secondary voltage
Accuracy power
Accuracy class
Voltage ratio error
Phase or phase displacement error
Rated thermal limiting output

Disconnect switch ratings

Rated voltage
Rated frequency
Rated current
Rated short-time withstand current and duration
Rated peak withstand current
Rated short-time power frequency withstand voltage (rms) – To earth between
breaks
Rated lightning impulse withstand voltage (peak) – To earth between breaks
Rated busbar transferring current
Type of motor operation mechanism
Switching capacitive current
Switching inductive current
Switching busbar transferring current Bus-transfer current

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An example of disconnect switch (GE, type GW7)

Reference // Fundamentals of Modern Electrical Substations by Boris Shvartsberg, Ph.D.,

P.E., P.M.P.

Edvard Csanyi

Electrical engineer, programmer and founder of EEP. Highly specialized for design of
LV/MV switchgears and LV high power busbar trunking (<6300A) in power substations,
commercial buildings and industry facilities. Professional in AutoCAD programming.

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