What is the transmission voltage of TNB?

SHORT CIRCUIT RATINGS

System Short circuit rating

500kV 50kA, 1s

275kV 40kA, 3s (50kA, 1s for substation adjacent to Power Station, or within 500kV substation)

31.5kA, 3s (40kA, 3s for substation adjacent to Power Station, or within 500kV/275kV

132kV
substation)

33kV 25kA, 3s

What is the transmission voltage in Malaysia?

Type of National Grid's transmission system

Lines Description Length

500 The single largest transmission system to be ever developed in Malaysia. the
522 km
kV backbone of the transmission system in Peninsular Malaysia

275
Large transmission system 73 km
kV

132
Medium transmission system
kV

33 kV Small transmission system

Advantages & Disadvantages of Air Insulated Substation

Air Insulated Substation (AIS) or Outdoor Substations have all switchgear equipment, busbars and other
switchyard equipment installed outside open to atmosphere. In earlier days for any voltage ratings AIS or
outdoor substation is employed.

Indoor Substation type is only employed in places where high pollution or saline environment exists.
Indoor substations are of two types

 Substation with conventional switchgear equipment enclosed in big building. Size of

switchyard is similar to AIS Substation.
 Substation with SF6 enclosed modules (Gas Insulated Substation) in building which takes
about 10% of the total AIS substation space
Because of excellent properties of SF6 gas such as high dielectric strength, high electronegativity, for EHV
substations more than 230kV now a days Indoor Gas Insulated Substations (GIS) are employed in place of AIS
substations. However the cost of GIS indoor substation is higher compared to AIS substation but it has some
benefits which includes high reliability, less space requirement and less maintenance. Some of the advantages
and disadvantages of outdoor switchyard is discussed below.

Advantages of Outdoor Substation (AIS):

 This type of substation arrangement is best suited for low voltage rating substations (step
down substations) and for those substations where there is ample amount of space available
for commissioning the equipment of the substation
 The construction work required is comparatively less to indoor switch yard and the cost of
switchgear installation is also low
 In future the extension of the substation installation is easier
 The time required for the erection of air insulated substation is less compared to indoor
substation
 All the equipment in AIS switch yard is within view and therefore the fault location is easier
and related repairing work is also easy
 There is practically no danger of the fault which appears at one point being propagated to
another point for the substation installation because the equipment of the adjoining
connections can be spaced liberally without any appreciable increase in the cost

Disadvantages of Air Insulated Substation (AIS):

 More space is required for outdoor substation when compared to indoor gas insulated
substation (GIS)
 Outdoor switch yards are more vulnerable to faults as it is located in outside atmosphere
which has some influence from pollution, saline environment and other environmental
factors. Deposition of saline particles on insulators can cause insulator failures. They are also
vulnerable to direct lightning strikes and other external events such as heavy winds, rains
and cyclones. Therefore reliability wise air insulated substation or outdoor substations are
relatively low compared to indoor substation
 Regular maintenance is required compared to indoor substations (Maintenance for Gas
Insulated Substation is very minimal and reliability is very high) as they are exposed to
outside environment

Gas Insulated Substations Advantages and Disadvantages

Gas Insulated Substations (GIS) differ from Air Insulated Substations (substations we usually see) such that all
the substation equipment such as busbars, circuit breakers, current transformer, potential transformers and
other substation equipment are placed inside SF 6 modules filled with SF6 gas. The SF6 gas which has high
dielectric property acts as an insulating medium to the High Voltage or Extra High Voltage substation
equipment. Generally, Gas Insulated Substations (GIS) are indoor type as it requires 1/10th of the space
required for conventional substations. Some of the advantages and disadvantages of Gas Insulated Substations
(GIS) are:

Advantages of GIS Substation

1. It occupies very less space (1/10th) compared to ordinary substations. Hence these Gas
Insulated Substations (GIS) are most preferred where area for substation is small (eg: Cities)

2. Most reliable compared to Air Insulated Substations, number of outages due to the fault is
less
3. Maintenance Free
4. Can be assembled at the shop and modules can be commissioned in the plant easily
Disadvantages of GIS Substation
1. Cost is higher compared to Ordinary Conventional Substations
2. Care should be taken that no dust particles enter into the live compartments which result in
flashovers
3. When fault occurs internally, diagnosis of the fault and rectifying this takes very long time
(outage time is high)

4. SF6 gas pressure must be monitored in each compartment, reduction in the pressure of the
SF6 gas in any module results in flashovers and faults.

Locations where Gas Insulated Substation is preferred

Gas Insulated Substations are preferred in the places where the land requirement for the substation is difficult
such as in populated areas and highly polluted areas where outdoor switchyard is not preferred. In Gas
Insulated Substations all the switching electrical equipment such as circuit breakers, isolators, earth switches,
and busbars are completely enclosed inside modules which are filled with SF 6 gas. These modules are factory
made and site assembled. Hence takes very little time for commissioning compared to air-insulated
substations.
The main advantage of this Gas Insulated Substation is because of its compact size due to a high dielectric
strength of the SF6 gas. And the availability and reliability of the GIS substations are more compared to air-
insulated substations (Faults occurring chances of Air insulated substation or conventional substations are
more. Hence GIS substations are provided where the high reliability of electric power is required such as
nuclear plants and and other important facilities where uninterruption of power is more required.

Some of the places where Gas insulated substations are preferred are:

1. Large towns where space available is limited

2. Industrial complexes where uninterruption of power is necessarily
3. Mountain regions and valleys
4. Underground substations
5. Off-shore (On sea or lake) substations
6. HVDC transmission system terminal substations
In large cities area for commissioning an ordinary Air insulated substation is difficult because of the lack of
space available. In such conditions GIS substations out rule the ordinary substation. However, it is to be
considered that GIS substation requires high capital cost compared to an ordinary substation.
Offshore and highly polluted areas where equipment present in the outdoor will be corroded due to the
pollution and saline environment. Under such case, indoor GIS substation is very much helpful.