Short note about substation equipment Page 1

A substation is the part of an electirical generation,transmition &distribution system.

Substation is transform voltage from high to low or reverse,or perform any of several other important
functions.between the generating station and consumer electiric power may flow through several
substations at different voltage levels.

Substation may be owned and operated by an electiric utility or may be owned by a large industrial or
commercial custumer.generally substations are un attended relying on scada for remote supervision and
control.

A substation may include transformers to change voltage levels between high transmition voltage and
lower distribution voltages. Orat the interconnection of two different transmition voltages. The word
substation comes from the days before the distribution system became a grid. As sentral generation
stations became larger, smaller generating plants were converted to distribution stations, receiving their
energy supply from a larger plant instead of using their own generators. The first substation were
connected to only one power station where the generators were housed and were subs of power station
Elements of a substation

A primary power lines side B secondary power lines side

1.primary power lines 2.ground wire 3.overhead lines 4.transformer for measurement of electric voltage
5.disconnect switch 6.circuit breaker 7.current transformer 8.lighting arrestor 9.main transformer
10.control building 11.security fence 12.secondary powe lines.

Substations generally have switching ,protection and control equipment, and transformers.in a large
substation circuit breakers are used to interrupt any short circuits or over load currents that may occur
on the net work.smaler distribution stationsmay use recloser circuit breakers of fuses for protection of
distribution circuits. Substation them selves do not usually have generators ,although a power plant may
have a substation nearby.other devices such as capacitors and voltage regulators may also be located at
a substation.

Substations may be on the surface in fenced enclosures,underground,or located in special-purpose

buildings. High rise buildings may have several indoor substatios. Indoor substation are usually found in
urban areas to reduce the noise from the transformers for reasons of appearance or to protect
switchgear from extreme climate or pollution conditions.

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Where the substation is metallic fence it must be properly grounded to protect people from high voltage
that may occur during a fault in the net work.earth faults at a substation can cause a ground potential
rise current flowing in the earths surface during a fault can cause metal objects to have significantly
different voltage than the ground under a person’sfeet this touch potential presents a hazard of
electrocution.

Types

Substation may be described by their voltage class their applications within the power system the
method used to insulate most connections and by the styleand materials of the structures used.these
categories are not disjointed to solve a particular problem, a transmition substation may include
significant distribution functions, for example.

Transmission substation

A transmission substation connects two or more transmission lines. (2) the simplest case is where all
transmission lines have the same voltage.in such cases substations contains high-voltage switches that
allow lines to be connected or isolated for fault clearance or maintenance . atransmiition station may
have transformers to convert between two transmission voltage, voltage control /power factor
correction devices such as capacitors, reactors or static VAR compensators and equipment such as phase
shifting transformers to control power flow between two adjacent power systems.

Transmission substatios can range from simple to complex. A small switching station may be little more
than a bus plus some circuit breakers.the largest transmission substations can cover a large
area(several acres/hectares)with multiple voltage levels,many circuit breakers and a large amount of
protectionand control equipment (voltage and current transformer , relays and scada system). Modern
substations may be implemented using international standards such as IEC standard 61850.

Distribution substation

A distribution substation in scarborough, Ontario disguised as a house complete with a driveway, front
walk and amown lawn and shrubs in the front yard. A warning notice can be clearly seen on the front
door disguises for substations are common in many cities.

A distribution substation transfers power from the transmission system to the disrbution system of an
area.it is uneconomical to directly connect electricity consumers to the main transmission net work,
unless they use large amounts of power so the distribution station reduces voltage to a level suitable for
local distribution.

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The input for distribution substation is typically at least two transmission or subtransmission lines.input
voltage may be for example 115kv or whatever is common in the area.the out put is a number of
feeders. Distribution voltage are typically medium voltage bet ween 2.4kv and 33kv depending on the
size of the area served and the distribution transformers at or near the customer premises.

In addition to transforming voltage distribution subtations also isolate fault in either the transmission or
distribution systes. Distribution substation are typically the point of voltage regulation although on long
distrbutio circuits (of severalmiles/kilometers) voltage regulation equipment may also be installed a long
the line.

The downtown areas of large cities feature complicated distribution substations, with high-voltage
switching and switching and buch up systems on the low voltage side more typical distribution
substations have a switch,one transformer and minimal facilities on the low voltage side.

Collector substation

In distribution generation projects such as a wind farm a collector substation may be required. It
resembles a distribution substation although power flow is in the opposite direction from many wind
turbines up into the transmission grid usually for economy of construction the collector system operates
around 35 kv and the collector substation steps up voltage to a transmission voltage grid. The collector
substation can also pprivide power factor correction if tit is needed metering and control of the wind
farm. In some special cases a collector substation can also contain an HVDC converter station.

Collector substation also exist where multiple thermal or hydroelectric power plants of comparable out
put power are in proximity .examples for such substation are brauweiler in Germany and hradec in the
Czech republic where power is collected from nearby lignite fired power plants.if no transformers are
required for increase of voltage to transmission level,the substation is a switching station.

Converter substation

Substations may be associated with HVDC converter plants, traction current ,or interconnected non-
synchronous net works. These stations contain power electronics 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,such as substation today are rare.

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Switching substation

A switching substation is a substation with out transformer and operating only at asingle voltage level
switching substation 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 substation may be known as a switching and these are commonly located directly adjacent
to or near by a power station. In this case the generetors 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.

Switching function

An important function performed by a substationis 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 lineor a transformer. To
maintainreliability of supply no company ever brings down its whole system for maintenance. All work to
be performed from routine testing to adding entirely new substations. Must be done while keeping the
whole system running.

Perhaps more important a fault maydevelop in transmission line or any other component. Some
examples of this:a line is hit by lighting and develops an arc or a tower is blown by high wind.the function
of the substation is to isolate the faulted portion of the shortest possiple time. De-energizing faulted
equipment protests it from further damage,and isolating a fault helps keep the rest of the electrical
grid operating with stability.

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Short note about substation equipment

sili-cagel.

Sili-cagel:are usually prepared by neutralizing sodium silicate with hydrochloric acid.

Is used in breather trabsformers for control ling the level of moisture &prevents it from entering the
equipment.

Is used to dry(remove the moisture)from atmospheric air as the transformer ‘’breathes’’from the
expansion.

Is used as avisual indicator of moisture in the transformer oil when moisture.

The purpose of these silicagel breathers isto absorb the moisture in the air sucket in the transformer
during the breathing process.

They are mainly useful in protecting the transformer oil from damaging effects of moisture silicagel blue
crytals &orange beads work effectively in this.

TAP CHANGER

Purpose of a tap chancher is to regulate the out put voltage of the transformer .it does this by
alternating the number of turs in one winding and there by changing the turns ratio of the transformer.

Tap changer is connected to the high voltage side.

The tap changer is usually placed on the high voltage winding as the current is lower and this
minimizesthe current handling equipment and tress during operation of the tap changer.

OLTC(ON LOAD TAP CHANGER)

DETC (DE ENERGIZED TAP CHANGER)

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RADIATOR

The radiator of the transformer accelerates the cooling rate of transformer . thus it plays a vital role in
increasing loading capacity of an electrical transformer this basic function of radiator of the power
transformer.

Radiators are heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the
purpose of cooling.user to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another.

SHUNT REACTOR

Shunt reactor are used to increase the power and energy system efficiently as it absorb and compsate
the reactive power in cables and long high voltage transmission lines.

It can be directly connected to the power line to tertiarywinding of three winding transformer

Shunt reactor and series reactor are used widely in AC net works to limit over voltage or short cut
current in power.

CONSERVATOR

The main function of conservator tank of a transformer is once the transformer is loaded and the
ambient temperature rises then the volume of the transformer oil will increase so it works like a
reservoir for insulating the transformer oil it also acts as a reservoir for transformer insulating oil.

BUS BAR

Are metal bars used to carry large amount of current often made of copper or aluminium every home
electrical panel has bus bar to distribute AC power to rows of circuits breakers.and conductor group of
conductor used for collecting electriric power.

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ISOLATOR

In electrical engineering a disconnector ,disconnect switch or isolate switch is used to ensure that an
electrical circuit is completely de energized for service or maintenance time . the disconnector sis usually
not intended for normal control of the circuit but only for safety isolation.

Used for isolating a circuit or equipment from a source of power.

VOLTAGE TRANSFORMER(VT)

Voltage converter/transformer are used to convert electricity.

CURRENT TRANSFORMER (CT)

Is used measure the current of anather circuit. CTs are used wordwide to monitor high-voltage lines
across national power grids. A CT sdesigned to produce an altenating current in its secondary winding
that is proportional to the current that it ismeasuring in its primary.

 A substation may include transformer to change voltage levels between high transmission
voltage and lower distribution voltage or at the interconnection of two deffirent substations are
unattended relying on SCADA for remote supervision and control.
TYPES OF TRANSFORMER
 Step up and step down tr
 Power tr
 Distribution tr
 Instrument tr
 Current tr
 Potential tr
 Single phase tr and so on…

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Marshal koiks

They are used to provide convenient connection points the varios control protection and
instrumentation wires. Which go to and come from all the diffirent substation plant. This includes
power and instrument transformer switchgear and SCADA equipment.

Bushing

In electric power a bushing is hollow electrical insulator that allows an electrical conductot to pass safety
through a conducting barrier such as the case of a transformer or circuit breaker with out making
electrical contact with it.

Battery

Is primary component of the substation or switch yard DC control system. The function of the control
system is to supply control power to operate critical devices such as protective relays, alarms,and status
indicators supervisory and communications equipment and switchgear operating circuits.

Lighting arrester

Is a device used onelectric power transmission and communication systems to protect the insulation and
conductors of system from the damaging effects of lightining.

Relays

Are the switches which aim at closing circuit electronically as well as electromechanically it control the
opening and closing of circuit contacts of an electrnic circuit.

Is an electromagnetic switch tha switch used to turn on and turn off a circuit by a low power signal. Or
several circuits must be controlled by one signal.

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Wave trap

A line trap also known as wave trap or high frequency stopper is a maintenance free parallel resonant
circuit mounted in line on the high voltage AC transmission power lines to prevent the transmission of
high frequency (40 KHZ TO 100KHZ)carrier signals of power line communication to unwanted
destinations.

Grounding

The need for a grounding system in the substation provide the neutrals of
generators,transformers,capacitors, and reactors a connection to the earth. Offer alow impedance path
to the earth for the current coming from grounb faults ,lightning rods surge arrester gaps,and related
devices.

Auxiliary transformer

Is used to supply low voltage for AC power system in side substation such as lighting, air conditioners
and other AC supply system and DC power supply system such as protection relays batteties SCADA and
telecom system and other DC supply system.

Buchholz relay

Is used for the protection of transformer from the faults occurring in side the transformer .short circuit
faults such as inter turn faults. Incipient winding faults a core faults may occur due to impulse break
down of the insulating oil or simply the transformer oil.

Measuring instrument

Multi-meter

Clampo meter

Megger

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