UNIT-1

OVERVIEW OF SUBSTATION

 Need of electrical substation:-

1. Factors governing the selection of the site of the substation.
2. Classification of sub-station based on voltage level, Indoor & Outdoor Substation,
Configuration, application, various symbols used in single line diagram.
 Conductor used in main bus and auxiliary bus for 11kV, 33kV & 132kV Substation.
 Typical earth resistance values of various substation and structures as per IE rules: - 11kV, 33kV &
132kV Substation & double pole structure, transmission tower (tower foot resistance).
 General safety rules to be followed to minimize the risk of electrical hazards in substation.

Need of electrical substation:-

An electrical Network comprises of the following systems:
 Generating Stations.
 Transmission Systems.
 Receiving Stations.
 Distribution Systems.
 Load Points.
The present day electrical power system is A.C. i.e. electric power is generated, transmitted, and
distributed in the form of Alternating current. The electric power is produce at the power station, which are
located at favorable places, generally quite away from the consumers. It is delivered to the consumer through
a large network of transmission and distribution. At many place in the line of power system, it may be
desirable and necessary to change some characteristic (e.g. Voltage, ac to dc, frequency p.f. etc.) of electric
supply. This is accomplished by suitable apparatus called sub-station for example, generation voltage (11KV
or 6.6KV) at the power station is stepped up to high voltage (Say 400KV to 132KV) for transmission of
electric Power. Similarly, near the consumer’s localities, the voltage may have to be stepped down to
utilization level. Suitable apparatus called sub-station.
An Electrical Substation is an assemblage of electrical components including busbars, switchgear, power
transformers, auxiliaries, etc. Basically an electrical substation consists of a number of incoming circuits and
outgoing circuits connected to common busbar system. Busbars are conducting bars to which a number of
incoming or outgoing circuits are connected. Each circuit has certain electrical components such as circuit-
breakers, isolators, earthing switches, current transformers, voltage transformers, etc. These components are
connected in a definite sequence such that a circuit can be switched off/on during normal operation by
manual/remote command and also automatically during abnormal conditions such as short-circuits.

Functions of a sub-station:
An electricity supply undertaking generally aims at the following:
 Supply of required electrical power to all the consumers continuously at all times.
 Maximum possible coverage of the supply network over the given geographical area.
 Maximum security of supply.
 Shortest possible fault duration.
 Optimum efficiency of plants and the network.
 Supply of electrical power within targeted frequency limits.
 Supply of electrical power within specified voltage limits.
 Supply of electrical energy to the consumers at the lowest cost.
 As a result of these objectives, there are various tasks which are closely associated with the
generation, transmission, distribution and utilisation of the electrical energy. These tasks are
performed by various, manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic devices located in generating
stations and substations.
The tasks associated with a major substation in the transmission system include the following:
 Controlling the exchange of energy.
 Protection of transmission system.
 Ensuring steady state and transient stability.
 Load shedding and prevention of loss of synchronism. Maintaining the system frequency
within targeted limits.
 Voltage control, reducing the reactive power flow by compensation of reactive power, tap-
changing.
 Securing the supply by providing adequate line capacity and facility for changing the
transmission paths.
 Data transmission via power line carrier for the purpose of network monitoring, control and
protection.
 Determining the energy transfer through transmission lines and tie-lines.
 Fault analysis and pin-pointing the cause and subsequent improvements.
 Securing supply by feeding the network at various points.
All these tasks are performed by the team work of load-control centre and control
rooms of substations. The substations perform several important tasks and are integral part of
the power system.

Selection of site:-
 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.

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.
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.
 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.

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 use of mitigation
measures such as noise barriers, sound enclosures, landscaping, and active noise cancellation.

 Sub-Station forms an important link between Transmission network and Distribution network. It
has a vital Influence of reliability should be such that it enables easy maintenance of equipment
and minimum Interruptions in power Supply. Sub-Station is constructed as near as possible to the
load center. The voltage level of power transmission is decided on the quantum of power to be
transmitted to the load center. Transmission is decided on the quantum of power to be transmitted
to the load center.

Main factor to be considered while selecting the site for Sub-Station are as follows:

i) The site chosen should be as near to the load center as possible.

ii) It should be easily approachable by road or rail for transportation of equipments.
iii) Land should be fairly leveled to minimize development cost.
iv) Source of water should be as near to the site as possible. This is because water is required for
various construction activities (especially civil works), earthing and for drinking purposes etc.
v) The sub-station site should be as near to the town / city but should be clear of public places,
aerodromes, and Military / police installations.
vi) The land should have sufficient ground area to accommodate substation equipments, buildings,
staff quarters, space for storage Of material, such as store yards and store sheds etc. with roads
and space for future expansion.
vii) Set back distances from various roads such as National Highways, State Highways should be
observed as per the regulations in force.
viii) While selecting the land for the Substation preference to be given to the Govt. land over private
land.
ix) The land should not have water logging problem.
x) Far away from obstructions, to permit easy and safe approach /termination of high voltage
overhead transmission lines.
Classification of sub-station based on voltage level, Indoor & Outdoor
Substation, Configuration, application:-
There are four major types of electric substations. The first type 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. Because of their special nature, the creation of power-plant switchyards will not
be discussed here, but the expansion and modifications of these facilities generally follow the same processes
as system stations.
Another 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, more so than on utility needs; so this
type of station will also not be the primary focus of this discussion.
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. 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.
Depending on the type of equipment used, the substations such as:-

A)Types of Electrical Power Substations

a) Step up or primary Electrical Power substation:

Primary substations are associated with the power generating plants where the voltage is stepped up
from low voltage (3.3, 6.6, 11, 33kV ) to 220kV or 400kV for transmitting the power so that huge amount of
power can be transmitted over a large distance to load centers.

b) Primary Grid Electrical Power Substation (Transmission Substation):

Such substations are located at suitable load centers along with the primary transmission lines. At
primary Grid Power Substations the primary transmission voltage (220kV or 400kV) is stepped down to
secondary transmission voltages (110kV) . This Secondary transmission lines are carried over to Secondary
Power Substations situated at the load centers where the voltage is further stepped down to Sub transmission
Voltage or Primary Distribution Voltages (11kV or 33kV).

c) Step Down or Distribution Electrical Power Substations:

Such Power Substations are located at the load centers. Here the Sub transmission Voltages of
Distribution Voltages (11kV or 33kV) are stepped down to Secondary Distribution Voltages (400kV or
230kV). From these Substations power will be fed to the consumers to their terminals.
B) Basis of Service Rendered
 Collector substation.
 Converter substations

 Switching substation.
 Railway substation.
 Mobile substation.
Collector substation
In distributed generation projects such as a wind farm or Photovoltaic power station, a collector substation
may be required. It resembles a distribution substation although power flow is in the opposite direction, from
many wind turbines or inverters up into the transmission grid. Usually for economy of construction the
collector system operates around 35 kV, although some collector systems are 12 KV, and the collector
substation steps up voltage to a transmission voltage for the grid. The collector substation can also
provide power factor correction if it is needed, metering, and control of the wind farm. In some special cases a
collector substation can also contain an HVDC converter station.
Collector substations also exist where multiple thermal or hydroelectric power plants of comparable output
power are in proximity. If no transformers are required for increasing the voltage to transmission level, the
substation is a switching station.

Converter substations
Converter substations may be associated with HVDC converter plants, traction current, or interconnected
non-synchronous networks. These stations contain power electronic devices to change the frequency of
current, or else convert from alternating to direct current or the reverse. Formerly rotary converters changed
frequency to interconnect two systems; nowadays such substations are rare.

Switching station
A switching station is a substation without transformers and operating only at a single voltage level.
Switching stations are sometimes used as collector and distribution stations. Sometimes they are used for
switching the current to back-up lines or for parallelizing circuits in case of failure. An example is the
switching stations for the HVDC Inga–Shaba transmission line.
A switching station may also be known as a switchyard, and these are commonly located directly adjacent to
or nearby a power station. In this case the generators from the power station supply their power into the yard
onto the Generator Bus on one side of the yard, and the transmission lines take their power from a Feeder Bus
on the other side of the yard.
An important function performed by a substation is switching, which is the connecting and disconnecting of
transmission lines or other components to and from the system. Switching events may be planned or
unplanned. A transmission line or other component may need to be de-energized for maintenance or for new
construction, for example, adding or removing a transmission line or a transformer. To maintain reliability of
supply, companies aim at keeping the system up and running while performing maintenance. All work to be
performed, from routine testing to adding entirely new substations, should be done while keeping the whole
system running.
Unplanned switching events are caused by a fault in a transmission line or any other component, for example:

 a line is hit by lightning and develops an arc,

 a tower is blown down by high wind.

The function of the switching station is to isolate the faulty portion of the system in the shortest possible time.
De-energizing faulty equipment protects it from further damage, and isolating a fault helps keep the rest of the
electrical grid operating with stability.

Railway substation
Electrified railways also use substations, often distribution substations. In some cases a conversion of the
current type takes place, commonly with rectifiers for direct current (DC) trains, orrotary converters for trains
using alternating current (AC) at frequencies other than that of the public grid. Sometimes they are also
transmission substations or collector substations if the railway network also operates its own grid and
generators to supply the other stations.

Mobile substation
A mobile substation is a substation on wheels, containing a transformer, breakers and buswork mounted on a
self-contained semi-trailer, meant to be pulled by a truck. They are designed to be compact for travel on
public roads, and are used for temporary backup in times of natural disaster or war. Mobile substations are
 usually rated much lower than permanent installations, and may be built in several units to meet road travel
limitations.
C) Based on Operation Voltage
a) High Voltage Electrical Power Substation:
This type of Substation associated with operating voltages between 11kV and 66kV.

b) Extra High Voltage Electrical Power Substation:

This type of Substation is associated where the operating voltage is between 132kV and 400 KV.

c) Ultra High Voltage Electrical Power Substation:

Substations where Operating Voltages are above 400kV is called Ultra High Voltage Substation.

D) Based On Substation Design

a) Outdoor Electrical Power Substations:

In Outdoor Power Substations , the various electrical equipments are installed in the switchyard below
the sky. Electrical equipment are mounted on support structures to obtain sufficient ground clearance.

b) Indoor Electrical Power Substation:

In Indoor Power Substations the apparatus is installed within the substation building. Such substations
are usually for the rating of 66kV. Indoor Substations are preferred in heavily polluted areas and Power
Substations situated near the seas (saline atmosphere causes Insulator Failures results in Flashovers).

E) Based on Design Configuration.

a) Air Insulated Electrical Power Substation:

In Air Insulated Power Substations bus bars and connectors are visible. In this Power Substations
Circuit Breakers and Isolators, Transformers, Current Transformers, Potential Transformers etc are installed in
the outdoor. Bus bars are supported on the post Insulators or Strain Insulators. Substations have galvanized
Steel Structures for Supporting the equipment, insulators and incoming and outgoing lines. Clearances are the
primary criteria for these substations and occupy a large area for installation.

b) Gas Insulated Electrical Power Substation:

In Gas Insulated Substation Various Power Substation equipments like Circuit Breakers, Current
Transformers, Voltage Transformers, Bus bars, Earth Switches, Surge Arresters Isolators etc are in the form of
metal enclosed SF6 gas modules. The modules are assembled in accordance with the required Configuration.
The various Live parts are enclosed in the metal enclosures (modules) containing SF6 gas at high pressure.
Thus the size of Power Substation reduces to 8% to 10% of the Air Insulated Power Substation.

c) Hybrid Electrical Power Substation:

Hybrid Substations are the combination of both Conventional Substation and Gas Insulated Substation.
Some bays in a Power Substation are Gas Insulated Type and some are Air Insulated Type. The design is
based on convenience, Local Conditions available, area available and Cost.

F) Constructional features.
According to constructional features: A sub-station has many components (e.g. circuit breakers,
switches, fuses, instruments etc.) which must be housed properly to ensure continuous and reliable service
According to constructional features, the sub-stations are classified as :
1. Indoor sub-station

2. Outdoor sub-station

3. Underground sub-station
4. Pole-mounted sub-station

1. Indoor sub-stations: For voltages upto 11 kV, the equipment of the sub-station is installed indoor because
of economic considerations. However, when the atmosphere is contaminated with impurities, these sub-
stations can be erected for voltages upto 66 kV.
2. Outdoor sub-stations: For voltages beyond 66 kV, equipment is invariably installed out It is because for
such voltages, the clearances between conductors and the space required for switches, circuit breakers and
other equipment becomes so great that it is not economical to install the equipment indoor.
3. Underground sub-stations: In thickly populated areas, the space available for equipment and building is
limited and the cost of land is high. Under such situations, the sub-station is created The reader may find
further discussion on underground sub-stations.
4. Pole-mounted sub-stations: This is an outdoor sub-station with equipment installed overhead on H-pole
or 4-pole structure. It is the cheapest form of sub-station for voltages not exceeding 11 kV (or 33 kV in some
cases). Electric power is almost distributed in localities through such sub For complete discussion on pole-
mounted sub-station.

Comparison between Outdoor and Indoor SubStation:

The comparison between outdoor and indoor sub-stations is given below in the tabular form :

From the above comparison, it is clear that each type has its own advantages and disadvantages. However,
comparative economics (i.e. annual cost of operation) is the most powerful factor influencing the choice
between indoor and outdoor sub-stations. The greater cost of indoor sub-station prohibits its use. But
sometimes non-economic factors (e.g. public safety) exert considerable influence in choosing indoor sub-
station. In general, most of the sub-stations are of outdoor type and the indoor sub-stations are erected only
where outdoor construction is impracticable or prohibited by the local laws.

Single Line Diagram of an Electrical Substation

A Single Line Diagram (SLD) of an Electrical System is the Line Diagram of the concerned Electrical
System which includes all the required electrical equipment connection sequence wise from the point of
entrance of Power up to the end of the scope of the mentioned Work. As in the case of 11KV Substation, the
SLD shall show Lightening Arrestor, C.T/P.T Unit, Isolators, Protection and Metering P.T & C.T. Circuit
Breakers, again Isolators and circuit Breakers, Main Power Transformer, all protective devices/relays and
other special equipment like CVT, GUARD RINGS, etc as per design criteria. And the symbols are shown
below. There are several feeders enter into the substation and carrying out the power. As these feeders enter
the station they are to pass through various instruments.
 A. FEEDER CERCUIT:

1. Lightening arrestors;

2. CVT;

3. Wave trap;

4. Isolators with earth switch

5. Current transformer;

6. Circuit breaker;

7. Feeder Bus isolator

8. BUS;

9. Potential transformer in the bus with a bus isolator

B) TRANSFORMER CIRCUIT:

i) HV side:

1. Transformer bus Isolator 3. Current transformer

2. Circuit breaker 4. Lightning Arrestors

5. Transformer (500kVA ,11KV/440V)

ii) LV side:

1. Lightening arrestors 5. Bus

2. Current transformer 6. Potential transformer with a bus isolator

3. Circuit breaker 7. A capacitor bank attached to the bus

4. Bus Isolator.

The single line diagram of the substation is shown in the figure below. The connection of the substation is
divided as

 Incoming or power feeder connection

 Outgoing feeder for feeding the other subsequent substations or switchgear.

 Power transformer connection.

 Voltage transformer connection for control and metering.

The circuit breaker is connected between the bus-bar and each incoming and outgoing circuit. The isolator is
provided on each side of the circuit breaker. The current transformer is used for measurement and protection.
The current transformers are placed on both sides of circuit breaker so that the protection zone are overlapped
and cover the circuit breaker.
The potential transformer is connected to the bus bar and on the incoming line side. Lightning or surge
arrester are connected phase to ground at the incoming line as the first apparatus and also at the terminal of
transformer and capacitor bank, the terminal of shunt reactor and a terminal of the generator, the terminal of
the large motor to divert switching.